Tafseer of The Clans · Al-Ahzaab · 33:52
Not lawful to you, [O Muhammad], are [any additional] women after [this], nor [is it] for you to exchange them for [other] wives, even if their beauty were to please you, except what your right hand possesses. And ever is Allah, over all things, an Observer.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ حُسْنُهُنَّ إِلا مَا مَلَكَتْ يَمِينُكَ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ رَقِيبًا (33:52) (It is not lawful for you to take women after this, nor to exchange them for other wives, even though their beauty pleases you, except what your right hand possesses (mā malakat yamīnuka). And Allah is over all things Watchful (raqīb).)
The scholars of interpretation (ahl al-taʾwīl) differed over the interpretation of His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this"). Some of them said: the meaning of this is: it is not lawful for you to take women after your wives to whom You gave the choice, and who chose Allah, His Messenger, and the Hereafter.
* Mention of those who said that:
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ... ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this...") up to رَقِيبًا ("Watchful"): he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was forbidden to marry anything after his first wives.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ... ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this...") up to His saying إلا مَا مَلَكَتْ يَمِينُكَ ("except what your right hand possesses"): he said: when He gave them the choice and they chose Allah, His Messenger, and the Hereafter, He restricted him to them; and He said: لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this, nor to exchange them for other wives"), and they are the nine who chose Allah and His Messenger.
And others said: rather the meaning of this is: it is not lawful for you to take women after those whom We have made lawful to you by Our saying يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِنَّا أَحْلَلْنَا لَكَ أَزْوَاجَكَ ... ("O Prophet, We have made lawful to you your wives...") up to His saying اللاتِي هَاجَرْنَ مَعَكَ وَامْرَأَةً مُؤْمِنَةً إِنْ وَهَبَتْ نَفْسَهَا ("who emigrated with you, and a believing woman if she gives herself"). It is as though the proponents of this saying understood the words to mean: nothing of women is lawful for you except those whom We have made lawful to you.
* Mention of those who said that:
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb related to us, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Mūsā, on the authority of Ziyād, who said to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: Had the Prophet ﷺ been permitted to marry if his wives had died? He said: that was not forbidden to him. Then I recited this verse to him: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِنَّا أَحْلَلْنَا لَكَ أَزْوَاجَكَ ("O Prophet, We have made lawful to you your wives"). He said: then he said: A particular category of women was made lawful to him, and the rest were forbidden to him. There was made lawful to him: every woman to whom he had given her bride-gift (mahr), and what his right hand possessed of what Allah had granted him as spoils of war, and the daughters of his paternal uncle, the daughters of his paternal aunts, the daughters of his maternal uncle, and the daughters of his maternal aunts, and every woman who gave herself to him if he wished to marry her — exclusively for him, to the exclusion of the rest of the believers.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Dāwūd related to us, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Mūsā, on the authority of Ziyād al-Anṣārī, who said: I said to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: What do you think, if the wives of the Prophet ﷺ had died, would it have been lawful for him to marry? He said: and what would forbid him that? He said: I said: His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this"). He said: Allah only made lawful to him a particular category of women.
Yaʿqūb related to me, saying: Ibn ʿUlayya related to us, on the authority of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, saying: Muḥammad ibn Abī Mūsā related to me, on the authority of Ziyād, a man of the Anṣār, who said: I said to Ubayy ibn Kaʿb: What do you think, if the wives of the Prophet ﷺ had died, would it not have been lawful for him to marry? He said: and what would prevent him from that? — and sometimes Dāwūd said: and what would forbid him that? I said: His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this"). Then he said: Allah only made lawful to him a particular category of women, for He said: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِنَّا أَحْلَلْنَا لَكَ أَزْوَاجَكَ ... ("O Prophet, We have made lawful to you your wives...") up to His saying إِنْ وَهَبَتْ نَفْسَهَا لِلنَّبِيِّ ("if she gives herself to the Prophet"); thereafter it was said to him: لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this").
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām ibn Salm related to us, on the authority of ʿAnbasa, on the authority of someone he named, on the authority of Abū Ṣāliḥ, concerning لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this"): he said: he was commanded not to marry any Bedouin woman or any foreign woman, but rather to marry after this from the women of Tihāma, and from whomever he wished of the daughters of the paternal uncle, the paternal aunt, the maternal uncle, and the maternal aunt, if he wished, three hundred.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this"): they are those whom Allah has named, except بَنَاتِ عَمِّكَ ... ("the daughters of your paternal uncle...") — the verse.
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd informed us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this"): he means: after the enumeration; he says: no woman is lawful for you except a daughter of the paternal uncle, or a daughter of the paternal aunt, or a daughter of the maternal uncle, or a daughter of the maternal aunt, or a woman who gave herself to you, from those among them who emigrated with the Prophet of Allah ﷺ. And in the reading of Ibn Masʿūd it stands: وَالَّلاتِي هَاجَرْنَ مَعَكَ ("and those who emigrated with you") — he means by it: everything that emigrated with him, that does not belong to the daughters of the paternal uncle and paternal aunt, nor to the daughters of the maternal uncle and maternal aunt.
And others said: no, the meaning of this is: women who do not belong to the Muslim women are not lawful for you; as for the Jewish women, the Christian women, and the polytheist women (mushrikāt), they are forbidden to you.
* Mention of those who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this"): no Jewish woman, no Christian woman, and no unbelieving woman (kāfira).
And the saying which in my view is closest to the correct one is the saying of the one who said: the meaning of this is: it is not lawful for you to take women after those whom I have made lawful to you by My saying إِنَّا أَحْلَلْنَا لَكَ أَزْوَاجَكَ اللاتِي آتَيْتَ أُجُورَهُنَّ ... ("We have made lawful to you your wives to whom you have given their bride-gifts...") up to His saying وَامْرَأَةً مُؤْمِنَةً إِنْ وَهَبَتْ نَفْسَهَا لِلنَّبِيِّ ("and a believing woman if she gives herself to the Prophet").
I said that only because it is, in my view, closest to the interpretation of the verse; for His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women") comes directly after His saying إِنَّا أَحْلَلْنَا لَكَ أَزْوَاجَكَ ("We have made lawful to you your wives"). And it is not permissible that He should say: I have made these lawful to you, while they are not lawful to you, except through the abrogation of the one by the other, and provided that the time at which the one verse was prescribed abrogates the other. Now, since this is so, and there is no indication nor proof for the abrogation of the ruling of the one verse by the ruling of the other, and there is no precedence of the revelation of the one over the other, and it is not impossible to hold both as valid, it is not permissible to say that the one abrogates the other. And since this is so, and the saying of the one who said that the meaning of this is: "no Jewish, Christian, or unbelieving woman is lawful for you after the Muslim women," has no intelligible meaning — since His saying مِنْ بَعْدُ ("after this") only means: after those named who were previously mentioned in the verse before this verse, and since in the preceding verse, in which were mentioned those named with the ruling of being made lawful for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, there was no mention of making all Muslim women lawful, but rather there was mention of his wives, and what his right hand possesses of what Allah grants him as spoils of war, and the daughters of his paternal uncle and the daughters of his paternal aunts, and the daughters of his maternal uncle and the daughters of his maternal aunts who emigrated with him, and a believing woman if she gives herself to the Prophet — so that the unbelieving women (kawāfir) are specifically designated with the prohibition — correct is what we have said concerning it, and not the saying of the one who contradicted our saying in that.
The reciters differed over the reading of His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women"). Most of the reciters of Medina and Kufa read it as (yaḥillu) with the yāʾ, with the meaning: nothing of women is lawful for you after this. And some of the reciters of Basra read it as (lā taḥillu laka al-nisāʾ) with the tāʾ, thereby pointing to the fact that it is an act of the women, and "al-nisāʾ" (the women) is a plural for many of them.
And the correct of the two readings in that is the reading of the one who read it with the yāʾ, for the reason I have mentioned regarding them, and because of the agreement of the authoritative reciters upon the reading of it, and the deviation of the one who contradicted them in that.
And His saying وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ حُسْنُهُنَّ ("nor to exchange them for other wives, even though their beauty pleases you"): the scholars of interpretation differed over its interpretation. Some of them said: the meaning of this is: it is not lawful for you to take women after the Muslim women, no Jewish woman, no Christian woman, and no unbelieving woman, nor to exchange the Muslim women for other women of the unbelievers.
* Mention of those who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both — on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ ("nor to exchange them for other wives"): nor that you exchange the Muslim women for other women of the Christians, the Jews, and the polytheists وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ حُسْنُهُنَّ إِلا مَا مَلَكَتْ يَمِينُكَ ("even though their beauty pleases you, except what your right hand possesses").
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Abū Razīn, concerning His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ حُسْنُهُنَّ إِلا مَا مَلَكَتْ يَمِينُكَ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this, nor to exchange them for other wives, even though their beauty pleases you, except what your right hand possesses"): he said: it is not lawful for you to marry polytheist women, except those who are taken as captives (sabī) so that your right hand possesses them.
And others said: no, rather the meaning of this is: nor that you exchange your wives who are in your marriage bond for other wives, by divorcing them and marrying others.
* Mention of those who said that:
It was related to me on the authority of al-Ḥusayn, saying: I heard Abū Muʿādh say: ʿUbayd related to us, saying: I heard al-Ḍaḥḥāk say concerning His saying وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ حُسْنُهُنَّ ("nor to exchange them for other wives, even though their beauty pleases you"): he says: it is not fitting for you to divorce any of your wives who does not please you; that was thus not lawful for him.
And others said: no, rather the meaning of this is: nor that you exchange your wives with another, by giving him your wife and taking his wife.
* Mention of those who said that:
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ حُسْنُهُنَّ ("nor to exchange them for other wives, even though their beauty pleases you"): he said: the Arabs in the jāhiliyya used to exchange their wives; one would give his wife to another and take his wife. Then He said: لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ حُسْنُهُنَّ إِلا مَا مَلَكَتْ يَمِينُكَ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this, nor to exchange them for other wives, even though their beauty pleases you, except what your right hand possesses") — there is no objection to your exchanging with your slave-girl (jāriya) whatever you wish to exchange, but as for the free women, that is not so. He said: and that was among their practices in the jāhiliyya.
And the correct of the sayings concerning it is the saying of the one who said: the meaning of this is: nor that you divorce your wives and exchange them for other wives.
We have only named that closest to the correct because of what we have previously expounded, namely that the saying of the one who said that the meaning of His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this") is: "no Jewish, Christian, or unbelieving woman is lawful for you," is a saying that has no basis.
Since that is so, likewise His saying وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ ("nor to exchange them") with "an unbelieving woman" is without meaning, since among the Muslim women there were already those forbidden to him by His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this"), as we have previously demonstrated. And as for what Ibn Zayd said concerning it likewise, that too is a saying without meaning, for if it had the meaning of exchange, then the reading and the revelation would have been: "wa-lā an tubādila bihinna min azwāj," or "wa-lā an tubdila bihinna" with a ḍamma on the tāʾ; but the reading upon which there is agreement is "wa-lā an tabaddala bihinna" with a fatḥa on the tāʾ, with the meaning: nor that you replace them. Moreover, what Ibn Zayd mentioned about the practice of the jāhiliyya is not known among any people we know of: that a man should exchange his free wife with another, so that it might be said: that was among their practice, after which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ received the prohibition against doing anything of the kind.
Should someone say: Was it then not lawful for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to marry a woman in addition to the wives he already had, so that the interpretation of His saying وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ مِنْ أَزْوَاجٍ ("nor to exchange them for other wives") would be directed toward what you have explained? Or he says: and where in this passage is the mention of his wives whom he already had, so that the hāʾ in His saying وَلا أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ ("nor to exchange them") refers back to them, while one supposes that the hāʾ in it refers back to "the women" in His saying لا يَحِلُّ لَكَ النِّسَاءُ مِنْ بَعْدُ ("It is not lawful for you to take women after this")? Then it is said: it was lawful for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to marry whomever he wished of the women whom Allah had made lawful to him, in addition to his wives whom he already had on the day this verse was revealed. He ﷺ was only forbidden by this verse to separate from those he already had by means of a divorce by which he intended to put another in her place, because the beauty of the replacing woman pleased him — since Allah had made them mothers of the believers and had let them choose between the worldly life and the Hereafter, and contentment with Allah and His Messenger, and they chose Allah, His Messenger, and the Hereafter, so that they were thereby forbidden to anyone other than him, and he was prevented from separating from them by divorce. As for marrying others than them, he was not prevented from that; on the contrary, Allah made that lawful to him, as is expounded in His Book. And it is related from ʿĀʾisha that the Prophet ﷺ did not die until Allah had made the women of the inhabitants of the earth lawful to him.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not die until the women had been made lawful to him — she means: the inhabitants of the earth.
ʿUbayd ibn Ismāʿīl al-Habbārī related to me, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not die until the women had been made lawful to him.
Al-ʿAbbās ibn Abī Ṭālib related to us, saying: Muʿallā related to us, saying: Wuhayb related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr al-Laythī, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not pass away until it had been made lawful to him to marry of the women whatever he wished.
Abū Zayd ʿUmar ibn Shabba related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, he said: I think that ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr related to me — Abū Zayd said: and Abū ʿĀṣim said once: on the authority of ʿĀʾisha — who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not die until Allah had made the women lawful to him. He said: and Abū al-Zubayr said: I was witness to a man to whom ʿAṭāʾ related it.
Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr related to us, saying: Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl related to us, saying: Hammām related to us, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of ʿAṭāʾ, on the authority of ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr, on the authority of ʿĀʾisha, who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not die until the women had been made lawful to him.
Should someone say: if the matter is as you have described, namely that Allah forbade His Prophet by this verse from divorcing his wives whom He gave the choice and who chose him, then what is the meaning of the report related from him, that he divorced Ḥafṣa and then took her back, and that he wanted to divorce Sawda until she came to an agreement with him that he would not divorce her, and she gave her day to ʿĀʾisha? Then it is said: that was before the revelation of this verse.
The proof for the correctness of what we have said, namely that this was before Allah's prohibition to His Prophet against divorcing them, is the related narration that ʿUmar came in to Ḥafṣa to rebuke her when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had secluded himself from his wives; among his words to her was: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had divorced you, and then I spoke to him and he took you back; by Allah, if he divorces you — or: if he had divorced you — I will not speak to him concerning you. And that was without doubt before the revelation of the verse of the choice (āyat al-takhyīr), for the verse of the choice was only revealed when the term of the oath of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to seclude himself from them had expired.
As for the indication that the matter of Sawda was before the revelation of this verse: Allah only commanded His Prophet to give his wives the choice between separation from him and remaining with him on the basis of contentment that there would be for them no obligatory turn-division (qasm), and that he might defer whom he wished of them and keep with him whom he wished of them, and prefer one of them over another whom he wished — and that is why the Exalted, whose mention is exalted, said to him: وَمَنِ ابْتَغَيْتَ مِمَّنْ عَزَلْتَ فَلا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكَ ذَلِكَ أَدْنَى أَنْ تَقَرَّ أَعْيُنُهُنَّ وَلا يَحْزَنَّ وَيَرْضَيْنَ بِمَا آتَيْتَهُنَّ كُلُّهُنَّ ("And whomever you desire of those you have set aside, there is no blame upon you; that is most appropriate that their eyes may be comforted, that they not grieve, and that all of them be content with what you give them"). And it is impossible that the reconciliation between her and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came about on the basis of her relinquishing her day to ʿĀʾisha, in a state in which she had no day from him.
And it is not permissible that this should have been from her, except in a state in which she had from him a day that was her right and which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was obliged to give her; and that no longer existed for them after the choice, as I have previously described in this Book of ours.
The interpretation of the words is thus: it is not lawful for you, O Muḥammad, to take women after those whom I have made lawful to you in the preceding verse, nor that you divorce your wives who chose Allah, His Messenger, and the Hereafter, and exchange them for other wives, even though the beauty of the one you wished to put in the place of one of them pleases you, except what your right hand possesses. And "an" in His saying أَنْ تَبَدَّلَ بِهِنَّ ("that you exchange them") is in the nominative (rafʿ), for its meaning is: it is not lawful for you to take women after this, nor the exchanging of your wives. And "illā" in His saying إلا مَا مَلَكَتْ يَمِينُكَ ("except what your right hand possesses") is an exception from "the women." And the meaning of this is: it is not lawful for you to take women after those whom I have made lawful to you, except what your right hand possesses of the slave-girls (imāʾ); for it is lawful for you to possess slave-girls of whatever kind of people you wish.
And His saying وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ رَقِيبًا ("And Allah is over all things Watchful"): He says: and Allah is, over all things — what He has made lawful to you and forbidden to you, and all the rest of all things — a Preserver (ḥafīẓ), from whom the knowledge of nothing of that escapes, and the preservation of all of that does not weigh heavily upon Him.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ رَقِيبًا ("And Allah is over all things Watchful"): that is to say: a Preserver (ḥafīẓ), according to the saying of al-Ḥasan and Qatāda.
