The exemplary women – wife of Pharaoh and Mary

The worst – wife of Noah and Lut


[Ruby’s note – The examples of wife of Noah and Lut here is to show that these women could not benefit from the close association with their Prophet husbands. Perhaps the indication is that the people who rejected faith during Prophet Muhammad’s time are like these women. The close proximity of these people and their day to day interactions with even with the Prophet did not avail them any good because their core was rotten and not salvageable just like the wives of the Prophets mentioned.]]


66. At-Tahrim (Prohibition)

Medina Period [107]


The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:



ضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا اِمْرَأَةَ نُوحٍ وَاِمْرَأَةَ لُوطٍ ...

66: 10.  Allah sets forth, for an example to the Unbelievers, the wife of Noah and the wife of Lut:

C5546. Read Noah's story in 11:36-48.

Evidently his contemporary world had got so corrupt that it needed a great Flood to purge it. "None of the people will believe except those who have believed already. So grieve no longer over their evil deeds."

But there were evil ones in his own family. A foolish and undutiful son is mentioned in 11:42-46. Poor Noah tried to save him and pray for him as one "of his family"; but the answer came: "he is not of thy family; for his conduct is unrighteous". We might expect such a son to have a mother like him, and here we are told that it was so.

Noah's wife was also false to the standards of her husband, and perished in this world and in the Hereafter.

C5547. The wife of Lot has already been mentioned more than once. See 11:81, and n. 1577; 7:83, and n. 1051; etc.

The world around her was wicked, and she sympathized with and followed that wicked world, rather than her righteous husband. She suffered the fate of her wicked world.

... كَانَتَا تَحْتَ عَبْدَيْنِ مِنْ عِبَادِنَا صَالِحَيْنِ ...

they were (respectively) under two of Our righteous servants,

... فَخَانَتَاهُمَا فَلَمْ يُغْنِيَا عَنْهُمَا مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا ...

but they were false to their (husbands), and they profited nothing before Allah on their account,

C5548. "Betrayed their husbands": not in sex, but in the vital spiritual matters of truth and conduct. They had the high privilege of the most intimate relationship with the noblest spirits of their age: but if they failed to rise to the height of their dignity, their relationship did not save them. They could not plead that they were the wives of pious husbands. They had to enter Hell like any other wicked women. There is personal responsibility before Allah. One soul cannot claim the merits of another, any more than one pure soul can be injured by association with a corrupt soul. The pure one should keep its purity intact. See the next two examples.

... وَقِيلَ ادْخُلَا النَّارَ مَعَ الدَّاخِلِينَ ﴿١٠﴾

but were told:

"Enter ye the fire along with (others) that enter!"

وَضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اِمْرَأَةَ فِرْعَوْنَ ...

66: 11.  And Allah sets forth, as an example to those who believe, the wife of Pharaoh:

C5549. Traditionally she is known as 'Asiya, one of the four perfect women, the other three being

Pharaoh is the type of arrogance, godlessness, and wickedness. For his wife to have preserved her Faith, her humility, and her righteousness was indeed a great spirit triumph. She was probably the same who saved the life of the infant Moses: 28:9.

... إِذْ قَالَتْ رَبِّ ابْنِ لِي عِندَكَ بَيْتًا فِي الْجَنَّةِ ...

Behold, she said: "O my Lord! build for me, in nearness to Thee, a mansion in the Garden,

C5550. Her spiritual vision was directed to Allah, rather than to the worldly grandeur of Pharaoh's court. It is probable that her prayer implies a desire for martyrdom, and it may be that she attained her crown of martyrdom.

... وَنَجِّنِي مِن فِرْعَوْنَ وَعَمَلِهِ ...

and save me from Pharaoh and his doings,

... وَنَجِّنِي مِنَ الْقَوْمِ الظَّالِمِينَ ﴿١١﴾

and save me from those that do wrong;"

وَمَرْيَمَ ابْنَتَ عِمْرَانَ الَّتِي أَحْصَنَتْ فَرْجَهَا ...   

66: 12.  And Mary the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity;

C5551. 'Imran was traditionally the name of the father of Mary the mother of Jesus: see n. 375 to 3:35. She was one of the purest of women, though the Jews accused her falsely of unchastity:

Cf. 19:27-28.

... فَنَفَخْنَا فِيهِ مِن رُّوحِنَا ...

and We breathed into her (body) of Our spirit;

C5552. Cf. 21:91.

As a virgin she gave birth to Jesus: 19:16-29.

In 32:9, it is said of Adam's progeny, man, that Allah "fashioned him in due proportion, and breathed into him something of His spirit".

In 15:29, similar words are used with reference to Adam.

The virgin birth should not therefore be supposed to imply that Allah was the father of Jesus in the sense in which Greek mythology makes Zeus the father of Apollo by Latona or of Minos by Europa.

And yet that is the doctrine to which the Christian idea of "the only begotten Son of God" leads.

... وَصَدَّقَتْ بِكَلِمَاتِ رَبِّهَا وَكُتُبِهِ وَكَانَتْ مِنَ الْقَانِتِينَ ﴿١٢﴾

and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of His Revelations, and was one of the devout (Servants).

C5553. Mary had true faith and testified her faith in the prophet Jesus and in his revelation as well as in the revelations which he came to confirm (and to foreshadow). She was of the company of the Devout of all ages. The fact that Qanitin (devout) is not here in the feminine gender implies that the highest spiritual dignity is independent of sex.

And so we close the lesson of this Surah, that while sex is a fact of our physical existence, the sexes should act in harmony and cooperation for in the highest spiritual matters we are all one. "We made her and her son a Sign for all peoples. Verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore serve Me and no other" (21:91-92).




Asad’s Version:


66:10 For those who are bent on denying the truth God has propounded a parable in [the stories of] Noah's wife and Lot's wife: they were wedded to two of Our righteous servants, and each one betrayed her husband; 21 and neither of the two [husbands] will be of any avail to these two women when they are told [on Judgment Day], "Enter the fire with all those [other sinners] who enter it! " 22


66:11 And for those who have attained to faith God has propounded a parable in [the story of] Pharaoh's wife 23 as she prayed "O my Sustainer! Build Thou for me a mansion in the paradise [that is] with Thee, and save me from Pharaoh and his doings, and save me, from all evildoing folk!


66:12 And [We have propounded yet another parable of God-consciousness in the story of] Mary, the daughter of Imran, 24 who guarded her chastity, whereupon We breathed of Our spirit into that [which was in her womb], 25 and who accepted the truth of her Sustainer's words - and [thus,] of His revelations 24 - and was one of the truly devout.




[[ Asad’s notes - 21 Lit., "and both betrayed them", i.e., their respective husbands. The story of Lot's wife and her spiritual betrayal of her husband is mentioned in the Qur'an in several places; see, in particular, note 66 on 7:83 and note 113 on 1 1 :81 . As regards Noahs wife, the above is the only explicit reference to her having betrayed her husband; it would seem, however, that the qualification of "those on whom [God's] sentence has already been passed" in 1 1 :40 applies to her no less than to her son (whose story appears in 11:42-47).


22 The "parable" (mathal) of these two women implies, firstly, that even the most intimate relationship with a truly righteous person - even though he be a prophet - cannot save an unrepentant sinner from the consequences of his sin; and, secondly, that a true believer must cut himself off from any association with "those who are bent on denying the truth" even if they happen to be those nearest and dearest to him (cf 11:46).


23 Cf. 28:8-9.


24 I.e., a descendant of the House of 'lmran (cf. the last third of note 22 on 3:33).


25 I.e., into the as yet unborn child (Razi, thus explaining the pronoun in fihi). For an explanation of the much-misunderstood allegorical phrase, "We breathed of Our spirit into it", see note 87 on21:91.

26 For the meaning of God's "words" (kalimat), see note 28 on 3:39.]]