24. An-Nur, Medina 102
The Quranic Text & Ali’s Translation:
يَا
أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ
آمَنُوا ...
24: 58. O ye who believe!
... لِيَسْتَأْذِنكُمُ الَّذِينَ مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ...
let those whom your right hands possess,
...وَالَّذِينَ لَمْ يَبْلُغُوا الْحُلُمَ مِنكُمْ ثَلَاثَ مَرَّاتٍ...
and the (children) among you who have not come of age ask your permission (before they come to your presence), on three occasions,
[C3035. 1 have translated "come of age" euphemistically for "attain the age of puberty".]
...مِن قَبْلِ صَلَاةِ الْفَجْرِ وَحِينَ تَضَعُونَ ثِيَابَكُم مِّنَ الظَّهِيرَةِ وَمِن بَعْدِ صَلَاةِ الْعِشَاء...
- before morning prayer;
- the while ye doff your clothes for the noonday heat;
- and after the late-night prayer:
...ثَلَاثُ عَوْرَاتٍ لَّكُمْ...
these are your three times of undress:
...لَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلَا عَلَيْهِمْ جُنَاحٌ بَعْدَهُنَّ...
outside those times it is not wrong for you or for them
...طَوَّافُونَ عَلَيْكُم بَعْضُكُمْ عَلَى بَعْضٍ...
to move about attending to each other:
...كَذَلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمُ الْآيَاتِ ...
thus does Allah make clear the Signs to you:
... وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿٥٨﴾
for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.
وَإِذَا
بَلَغَ الْأَطْفَالُ
مِنكُمُ الْحُلُمَ
...
24: 59. But when the children among you come of age,
... فَلْيَسْتَأْذِنُوا كَمَا اسْتَأْذَنَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ...
let them (also) ask for permission, as do those senior to them (in age):
...كَذَلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ آيَاتِهِ...
thus does Allah make clear His Signs to you:
...وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ ﴿٥٩﴾
for Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom.
Asad’s Translation:
24:58 O YOU who have attained to faith! 77 At three times [of day], let [even] those whom you rightfully possess, 78 as well as those from among you who have not yet attained to puberty: 79 ask leave of you [before intruding upon your privacy]: before the prayer of daybreak, and whenever you lay aside your garments in the middle of the day, and after the prayer of nightfall: 80 the three occasions on which your nakedness is likely to be bared. 81 Beyond these [occasions], neither you nor they will incur any sin if they move [freely] about you, attending to [the needs of] one another.
In this way God makes clear unto you His messages: for God is all knowing, wise!
24:59 Yet when the children among you attain to puberty, let them ask leave of you [at all times], even as those [who have reached maturity] before them have been enjoined to ask it. 82 In this way God makes clear unto you His messages: for God is all-knowing, wise!
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Ali’s comments:
C3033. We now come to rules of decorum within the family circle in refined society.
Servants and children have rather more freedom of access, as they come and go at all hours, and there is less ceremony with them. But even in their case there are limitations. During the night, before morning prayer, i.e., before dawn, they must discreetly ask for permission before they enter, partly because they must not unnecessarily disturb people asleep, and partly because the people are then undressed.
The same applies to the time for the midday siesta, and again to the time after night prayers, when people usually undress and turn in to sleep.
For grown-ups the rule is stricter: they must ask permission to come in at all times (24:59).
C3034. This would mean slaves in a regime of slavery.
But the principle applies to all personal servants who have to render personal service to their masters or mistresses by day and night.
C3036. It is a mark of refinement for ladies and gentlemen not to be slipshod or vulgarly familiar, in dress, manners, or speech; and Islam aims at making every Muslim man or woman, however humble in station, a refined gentleman or lady, so that he or she can climb the ladder of spiritual development with humble confidence in Allah, and with the cooperation of his brothers and sisters in Islam.
The principles here laid down apply, if they are interpreted with due elasticity, even if social and domestic habits change, with changes in climate or in racial and personal habits.
Punctilious self-respect and respect for others, in small things as well as great, are the key-notes in these simple rules of etiquette.
C3037. Children among you: i.e., in your house, not necessarily your own children.
All in the house, including the stranger within your gate, must conform to these wholesome rules.
C3038. Those before them, i.e., those who have already been mentioned in the previous verse.
It is suggested that each generation as it grows up should follow the wholesome traditions of its predecessors. While they were children, they behaved like children: when they grow up, they must behave like grown-ups.
C3039. The refrain connects up this verse with the last verse, whose meaning is completed here.
The slight variation ("His Signs" here, against "the Signs" there) shows that this verse is more personal, as referring to children who have now become responsible men and women.
Asad’s comments:
77 In pursuance of the Qur'anic principle that the social and individual - as well as the spiritual and material - aspects of human life form one indivisible whole and cannot, therefore, be dealt with independently of one another, the discourse returns to the consideration of some of the rules of healthy social behaviour enunciated in the earlier parts of this surah. The following passage takes up and elaborates the theme of the individual's right to pflvacy , already touched upon in verses
27-29 above.
78 Lit., "whom your right hands possess" - a phrase which, primarily and as a rule, denotes male and female slaves. Since, however, the institution of slavery is envisaged in the Qur'an as a mere historic phenomenon that must in time be abolished (cf notes 46 and 47 on verse 33 of this silrah, as well as note 146 on 2:177), the above expression may also be understood as referring, in general, to one's close dependants and to domestic servants of either sex. Alternatively; the phrase ma malakat aymainukum may denote, in this context, "those whom you rightfully possess through wedlock", i.e., wives and husbands (cf. 4:24 and the corresponding note 26).
79 I.e., all children, irrespective of whether they are related to one or not.
80 The term zahirah (lit., "midday" or, occasionally, "heat of midday"), which occurs in the Qur'an only in this one instance, may have been used metonyrnically in the sense of "day-time" as contrasted with the time after the prayer of nightfall and before the prayer of daybreak: hence my tentative rendering as "middle of the day".
81 Lit., "three [periods] of nakedness (thalath 'awrat) for you". This phrase is to be understood both literally and figuratively. Primarily, the term 'awrah signifies those parts of a mature person's body which cannot in decency be exposed to any but one's wife or husband or, in case of illness, one's physician. In its tropical sense, it is also used to denote spiritual "nakedness", as well as situations and circumstances in which a person is entitled to absolute privacy. The number "three" used twice in this context is not, of course, enumerative or exclusive, but is obviously meant to stress the recurrent nature of the occasions on which even the most familiar members of the household, including husbands, wives and children, must respect that privacy.
82 Lit., "have asked it" : a reference to the injunction laid down in verses 27-28 above. My interpolation, between brackets, of the phrase "who have reached maturity" is based on Zamakhshari's interpretation of the words "those before them".