Surah At-Tahrim, The Prohibition

Surah 66 · 12 verses · revealed at Medina

At-Tahrim opens by asking the Prophet why he forbade himself something God had made lawful, in order to please his wives.

The incident behind it was domestic and is recorded in the collections: a matter of honey, or of a household arrangement, depending on the report, and a confidence that was passed on. The surah addresses two of his wives directly and tells them to turn to God, and it is one of the clearest illustrations of the Qur'an's willingness to record the Prophet's household as it was.

It then gives the instruction that has become its best-known line: to guard yourselves and your families from a fire. Muslim writing on raising children returns to that verse more than to any other.

Its closing passage is a set of four examples, and the arrangement is deliberate. The wife of Noah and the wife of Lot, married to two righteous men and neither of them saved by it. The wife of Pharaoh, in the household of the worst of men, asking for a house with God in the Garden. And Mary, who guarded her chastity and believed in the words of her Lord.

The point made is that nobody is carried by anybody else's faith, in either direction — and that it is stated using four women, in a chapter that began with a disagreement between a husband and his wives, is not an accident.

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