Sura-24 [ An Nur madina 102]
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:
وَلَوْلَا
فَضْلُ اللَّهِ
عَلَيْكُمْ
وَرَحْمَتُهُ...
24: 10. If it were not for Allah's grace and mercy on you,
...وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ تَوَّابٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿١٠﴾
and that Allah is Oft-Returning, Full of Wisdom -- (ye would be ruined indeed).
C2961. Cf. 24:11-14, and n. 2962, which illustrates the matter by a concrete instance.
إِنَّ
الَّذِينَ
جَاؤُوا بِالْإِفْكِ
عُصْبَةٌ مِّنكُمْ...
24: 11. Those who brought forward the lie are a body among yourselves:
C2962. The particular incident here referred to occurred on the return from the expedition to the Banui Mustaliq, A.H. 5-6.
When the march was ordered, Hadhrat Aisha was not in her tent, having gone to search for a valuable necklace she had dropped. As her litter was veiled, it was not noticed that she was not in it, until the army reached the next halt. Meanwhile, finding the camp had gone, she sat down to rest, hoping that some one would come back to fetch her when her absence was noticed.
It was night, and she fell asleep. Next morning she was found by Safwan, a Muhajir, who had been left behind the camp expressly to pick up anything inadvertently left behind. He put her on his camel and brought her, leading the camel on foot.
This gave occasion to enemies to raise a malicious scandal. The ringleader among them was the chief of Madinah Hypocrites, Abdullah ibn Ubai, who is referred to in the last clause of this verse.
He had other sins and enormities to his debit, and he was left to the punishment of an unrepentant sinner, for he died in that state. The minor tools were given the legal punishment of the law, and after penitence mended their lives. They made good.
...لَا تَحْسَبُوهُ شَرًّا لَّكُم بَلْ هُوَ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ...
think it not to be an evil to you: on the contrary it is good for you:
C2963. It is worse for a scandal to be whispered about with bated breath, than that it should be brought into the light of day and disproved.
...لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مِّنْهُم مَّا اكْتَسَبَ مِنَ الْإِثْمِ...
to every man among them (will come the punishment) of the sin that he earned,
...وَالَّذِي تَوَلَّى كِبْرَهُ مِنْهُمْ لَهُ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ ﴿١١﴾
and to him who took on himself the lead among them, will be a Penalty grievous.
C2964. The ringleader: see n. 2962 above.
لَوْلَا
إِذْ
سَمِعْتُمُوهُ
ظَنَّ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ
وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتُ
بِأَنفُسِهِمْ
خَيْرًا...
24: 12. Why did not Believers -- men and women -- when ye heard of the affair -- put the best construction on it in their own minds
C2965. Both men and women were involved in spreading the scandal. Their obvious duty was to put the best, not the worst, construction on the acts of one of the "mothers of the Believers".
...وَقَالُوا هَذَا إِفْكٌ مُّبِينٌ ﴿١٢﴾
and say, "This (charge) is an obvious lie"?
وَلَوْلَا
إِذْ سَمِعْتُمُوهُ
قُلْتُم مَّا
يَكُونُ لَنَا
أَن نَّتَكَلَّمَ
بِهَذَا...
24: 16. And why did ye not, when ye heard it, say --
"It is not right of us to speak of this:
...سُبْحَانَكَ هَذَا بُهْتَانٌ عَظِيمٌ ﴿١٦﴾
Glory to Allah!
this is a most serious slander!"
C2969. The right course would have been to stop any further currency of false slanders by ignoring them and at least refusing to help in their circulation.
The exclamation "Subhanaka", "Praise to Thee (O Allah)", or "Glory to Allah!" is an exclamation of surprise and disavowal as much as to say,
"We do not believe it! And we shall have nothing to do with you, 0 false slanderers!"
يَعِظُكُمُ
اللَّهُ
أَن تَعُودُوا
لِمِثْلِهِ
أَبَدًا إِن
كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ
﴿١٧﴾
24: 17. Allah doth admonish you, that ye may never repeat such (conduct), if ye are (true) Believers.
وَيُبَيِّنُ
اللَّهُ لَكُمُ
الْآيَاتِ...
24: 18. And Allah makes the Signs plain to you:
...وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿١٨﴾
for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.
Asad’s Version:
24:10
AND WERE it not for God's favour upon you, [O man,] and His grace, and that God is a wise acceptor of repentance...!"
(24:11)
Verily, numerous among you are those who would falsely accuse others of unchastity: 12 [but, O you who are thus wronged,] deem it not a bad thing for you: nay, it is good for you! 13 [As for the slanderers,] unto every one of them [will be accounted] all that he has earned by [thus] sinning; and awesome suffering awaits any of them who takes it upon himself to enhance this [sin] ! "
24:12
Why do not the believing men and women, whenever such [a rumour] is heard, 15 think the best of one another and say, "This is an obvious falsehood"? (24:13) Why do they not [demand of the accusers 16 that they] produce four witnesses to prove their allegation? 17 - for, if they do not produce such witnesses, it is those [accusers] who, in the sight of God, are liars indeed!
[[ for context see 24:13 – 18]
24:16
And [once again]: Why do you not say, whenever you hear such [a rumour], "It does not behoove us to speak of this, O Thou who art limitless in Thy glory: this is an awesome calumny"? 18 '
(24: 17) God admonishes you [hereby] lest you ever revert to the like of this [sin], if you are [truly] believers;
(24: 18) for God makes [His] messages clear unto you - and God is all-knowing, wise!
[[Asad’s notes - 1 1 This sentence, which introduces the section dealing with the condemnation of all unfounded or unproven accusations of unchastity - as well as the similar sentence which closes it in verse 20 - is deliberately left incomplete, leaving it to man to imagine what would have happened to individual lives and to society if God had not ordained all the above-mentioned legal and moral safeguards against possibly false accusations, or if He had made a proof of adultery dependent on mere circumstantial evidence. This idea is further elaborated inverses 14-15.
12 Lit., "those who brought forth the lie (al-ifk, here denoting a false accusation of unchastity) are a numerous group ('usbah) among you" . The term 'usbah signifies any group of people, of indeterminate number, banded together for a particular purpose (Taj al-'Arus). - According to all the commentators, the passage comprising verses 1 1 -20 relates to an incident which occurred on the Prophet's return from the campaign against the tribe of Mustaliq in the year 5 H. The Prophet's wife 'A'ishah, who had accompanied him on that expedition, was inadvertently left behind when the Muslims struck camp before dawn. After having spent several hours alone, she was found by one of the Prophet's companions, who led her to the next halting-place of the army. This incident gave rise to malicious insinuations of misconduct on the part of A'ishah; but
these rumours were short-lived, and her innocence was established beyond all doubt. - As is the case with all Qur'anic allusions to historical events, this one, too, is primarily meant to bring out an ethical proposition valid for all times and all social circumstances: and this is the reason why the grammatical construction of the above passage is such that the past-tense verbs occurring inverses 11-16 can be - and, I believe, should be - understood as denoting the present tense.
1 3 I.e., in the sight of God: for, the unhappiness caused by unjust persecution confers - as does every undeserved and patiently borne suffering - a spiritual merit on the person thus afflicted. Cf. the saying of the Prophet, quoted by Bukhari and Muslim: "Whenever a believer is stricken with any hardship, or pain, or anxiety, or sorrow, or harm, or distress - even if it be a thorn that has hurt him - God redeems thereby some of his failings."]]
[[Asad’s notes -
18 Sc, "yourselves and your whole society" . With this and the next verse the discourse returns to,
and elaborates, the idea touched upon in verse 10 and explained in note 1 1 .
19 The interjection subhanaka ("O Thou who art limitless in Thy glory") stresses here the believer's moral duty to bethink himself of God whenever he is tempted to listen to, or to repeat, a calumny (since every such rumour must be considered a calumny unless its truth is legally Proved). ]]
24:6 Those who accuse their wives, but they have no witnesses except for themselves, then the testimony of one of them is to be equivalent to that of four witnesses if he is swearing by God that he is being truthful.
24:7 The fifth shall be God's curse upon him if he is one of those lying.
24:8 The punishment will be averted from her if she testifies four times by God that he is of the liars.
24:9 The fifth shall be that God's curse is upon her if he is speaking the truth.
24:10 All this is from God's favor upon you and His mercy. God is Forgiving, Wise.
24:11 Those who have brought forth the false accusation were a group from within you. Do not think it is bad for you, for it is good for you. Every person amongst them will have what he deserves of the sin. As for he who had the greatest portion of it, he will have a great retribution.*
24:12 If only when you heard it the acknowledging men and women should have thought good of themselves and said: "This is an obvious lie!"
24:13 If only they had brought four witnesses to it. If they did not have the witnesses, then these with God are the liars.
[[*024:011 By not mentioning the person's name in this historical event, the Quran wants to keep its universal application clear. See 111:1 ]]