Sura-33 [Al Ahzab madina 90]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s version:
وَإِذْ
تَقُولُ
لِلَّذِي أَنْعَمَ
اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ
وَأَنْعَمْتَ
عَلَيْهِ...
33:37. Behold! thou didst say to one who had received the grace of Allah and thy favor:
C3722. This was Zayd son of Harithah, one of the first to accept the faith of Islam. He was a freedman of the holy Prophet, who loved him as a son and gave him in marriage his own cousin Zaynab.
The marriage however turned out to be unhappy.
See next note.
...أَمْسِكْ عَلَيْكَ زَوْجَكَ وَاتَّقِ اللَّهَ...
"Retain thou (in wedlock) thy wife, and fear Allah."
...وَتُخْفِي فِي نَفْسِكَ مَا اللَّهُ مُبْدِيهِ...
But thou didst hide in thy heart that which Allah was about to make manifest:
C3723. Zayd's marriage with the Prophet's cousin Zaynab daughter of Jahsh did not turn out happy.
Zaynab the high-born looked down upon Zayd the freedman who had been a slave. And he was not comely to look at. Both were good people in their own way, and both loved the Prophet, but there was mutual incompatibility and this is fatal to married life.
Zayd wished to divorce her, but the Prophet asked him to hold his hand, and he obeyed. She was closely related to the Prophet; he had given a handsome marriage gift on her marriage to Zayd; and people would certainly talk if such a marriage was broken off.
But marriages are made on earth, not in heaven, and it is no part of Allah's Plan to torture people in a bond which should be a source of happiness but actually is a source of misery.
Zayd's wish-indeed the mutual wish of the couple-was for the time being put away, but it became eventually an established fact, and everybody came to know of it. (R).
...وَتَخْشَى النَّاسَ وَاللَّهُ أَحَقُّ أَن تَخْشَاهُ...
thou didst fear the people, but it is more fitting that thou shouldst fear Allah.
C3724. All actual facts are referred to Allah.
When the marriage is unhappy, Islam permits the bond to be dissolved, provided that all interests concerned are safeguarded. Apparently there was no issue here to be considered.
Zaynab had to be considered, and she obtained the dearest wish of her heart in being raised to be a Mother of the Believers, with all the dignity and responsibility of that position. See n. 3706 to 33:28 above.
...فَلَمَّا قَضَى زَيْدٌ مِّنْهَا وَطَرًا زَوَّجْنَاكَهَا...
Then when Zayd had dissolved (his marriage) with her, with the necessary (formality), We joined her in marriage to thee:
C3725. The Iddah or period of waiting after divorce (2:228, and n. 254) was duly completed.
...لِكَيْ لَا يَكُونَ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ حَرَجٌ فِي أَزْوَاجِ أَدْعِيَائِهِمْ ...
in order that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the Believers in (the matter of) marriage with the wives of their adopted sons,
C3726. The Pagan superstition and taboo about adopted sons had to be destroyed.
See 33:4-5 and notes 3671-3672 above.
...إِذَا قَضَوْا مِنْهُنَّ وَطَرًا ...
when the latter have dissolved with the necessary (formality) (their marriage) with them:
...وَكَانَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ مَفْعُولًا ﴿٣٧﴾
and Allah's command must be fulfilled.
مَّا
كَانَ عَلَى
النَّبِيِّ
مِنْ حَرَجٍ
فِيمَا فَرَضَ
اللَّهُ لَهُ...
33:38. There can be no difficulty to the Prophet in what Allah has indicated to him as a duty.
C3727. See n. 3724 above.
...سُنَّةَ اللَّهِ فِي الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِن قَبْلُ ...
It was the practice (approved) of Allah amongst those of old that have passed away,
C3728. The next clause is parenthetical. These words then connect on with verse 39.
Among the people of the Book there was no taboo about adopted sons, as there was in Pagan Arabia.
...وَكَانَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ قَدَرًا مَّقْدُورًا ﴿٣٨﴾
and the command of Allah is a decree determined.
C3729. Allah's ordering of the world is always full of wisdom. Even our unhappiness and misery may actually have a great meaning for ourselves or others or both. If our first Plan seems to fail, we must not murmur and repine, but retrieve the position by adopting a course which appears to be the best possible in the light of our duties as indicated by Allah. For Allah's Plan is framed on universal principles that cannot be altered by human action.
Asad’s Version:
33:37 [Asad] AND LO, 42 [O Muhammad,] thou didst say unto the one to whom God had shown favour and to whom thou hadst shown favour, 43 "Hold on to thy wife, and remain conscious of God! " And [thus] wouldst thou hide within thyself something that God was about to bring to light 44 - for thou didst stand in awe of (what] people [might think], whereas it was God alone of whom thou shouldst have stood in awe! 45
[But] then, when Zayd had come to the end of his union with her, 46 We gave her to thee in marriage, so that [in future] no blame should attach to the believers for (marrying] the spouses of their adopted children when the latter have come to the end of their union with them. 47 And [thus] God's will was done.
33:38 (Hence,] no blame whatever attaches to the Prophet for [having done] what God has ordained for him. 48 [Indeed, such was] God's way with those that have passed away aforetime" - and [remember that] God's will is always destiny absolute -;
(33:39) [and such will always be His way with] those who convey God's messages (to the world], and stand in awe of Him, and hold none but God in awe: for none can take count [of man's doings] as God does!
[[ Asad’s notes - 42 For this rendering of the particle idh, see surah 2, note 21 . - With the above verse, the discourse returns to the problem of "elective" relationships touched upon inverses 4 ff Several years before Muhammad's call to prophethood, his wife Khadijah made him a present of a young slave, Zayd ibn Harithah, a descendant of the North- Arabian tribe of Banu Kalb, who had been taken captive as a child in the course of one of the many tribal wars and then sold into slavery at Mecca. As soon as he became the boy's owner, Muhammad freed him, and shortly afterwards adopted him as his son; and Zayd, in his turn, was among the first to embrace Islam. Years later, impelled by the desire to break down the ancient Arabian prejudice against a slave's or even a freedmaris marrying a "free-born" woman, the Prophet persuaded Zayd to marry his (Muhammad's) own cousin, Zaynab hint Jahsh, who, without his being aware of it, had been in love with Muhammad ever since her childhood. Hence, she consented to the proposed marriage with great reluctance, and only in deference to the authority
of the Prophet. Since Zayd, too, was not at all keen on this alliance (being already happily married to another freed slave, Umm Ayman, the mother of his son Usamah), it was not surprising that the marriage did not bring happiness to either Zaynab or Zayd. On several occasions the latter was about to divorce his new wife who, on her part, did not make any secret of her dislike of Zayd; and each time they were persuaded by the Prophet to persevere in patience and not to separate. In the end, however, the marriage proved untenable, and Zayd divorced Zaynab in the year 5 H. Shortly afterwards the Prophet married her in order to redeem what he considered to be his moral esponsibility for her past unhappiness.
43 I.e., Zayd ibn Harithah, whom God had caused to become one of the earliest believers, and whom the Prophet had adopted as his son.
44 Namely, that the marriage of Zayd and Zaynab, which had been sponsored by Muhammad himself, and on which he had so strongly insisted, was a total failure and could only end in divorce (see also next note).
45 Lit., "whereas God was more worthy (ahaqq) that thou shouldst stand in awe of Him". Referring to this divine reprimand (which, in itself, disproves the allegation that the Qur'an was "composed by Muhammad"), A'ishah is reliably quoted as having said, "Had the Apostle of God been inclined to suppress anything of what was revealed to him, he would surely have suppressed this verse" (Bukhari and Muslim).
46 Lit., "ended his want of [or "claim on"] her", sc., by divorcing her (Zamakhshari).
47 Thus, apart from the Prophet's desire to make amends for Zaynab's past unhappiness, the divine purpose in causing him to marry the former wife of his adopted son (stressed in the phrase, "We gave her to thee in marriage") was to show that - contrary to what the pagan Arabs believed - an adoptive relationship does not involve any of the marriage-restrictions which result from actual, biological parent-and-child relations (cf. note 3 on verse 4 of this surah). ]]