Al-W¥^idÏ's Asb¥b al-Nuz‰l - The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies ...

Chapter 24: Surah al-Nur
The commentators of the Qur’an said: “This verse was revealed about Mu‘adhah and Musaykah, two
slave-girls of ‘Abd Allah ibn Ubayy, whom he used to force to whoredom and tax them for it. This was a
pre-Islamic practice; people used to drive their slave-girls to whoredom and take a certain amount of the
money they made from it. Upon the advent of Islam, Mu‘adhah said to Musaykah: ‘This business of ours
is one of two things: if it is good, we have done plenty of it; and if it is evil, it is high time that we leave it’.
And so Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse”. 17
Said Muqatil: “This verse was revealed about six slave-girls who were owned by ‘Abd Allah ibn Ubayy.
The latter forced them to whoredom in order to benefit from the money they earned from selling themselves.
These slave-girls were: Mu‘adhah, Musaykah, Umaymah, ‘Amrah, Arwa and Qutaylah. One day,
one of them brought back with her one piece of gold while another one brought back with her a stripy
garment. He said to them: ‘Go back and do more’. They said: ‘By Allah, we will not; Allah has brought us
Islam and made adultery forbidden’. They went to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him
peace, and complained to him. And so, Allah, exalted is He, revealed this verse”.
Al-Hakim Abu ‘Amr Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz informed us, through that which he wrote to me>
Ahmad ibn al-Fadl al-Haddadi> Muhammad ibn Yahya> Ishaq ibn Ibrahim> ‘Abd al-Razzaq> Ma‘mar>
al-Zuhri who related that a man from the Quraysh was taken prisoner at the Battle of Badr. He was the
prisoner of ‘Abd Allah ibn Ubayy. The latter had a slave-girl called Mu‘adhah. The Qurashite prisoner
sought to tempt Mu‘adhah to sleep with him but she persistently refused because she was Muslim. Ibn
Ubayy tried to force her to sleep with the Qurashite and hit her to make her comply. He was hoping that
she would eventually get pregnant from the Qurashite so that he could demand a ransom for his child.
However, Allah, exalted is He, said: (Force not your slave-girls to whoredom) up to His words (Allah will
be Forgiving, Merciful!), He says: I will forgive them that which they were forced to do. 18
(And when they appeal unto Allah and His messenger to judge between them…) [24:48].
The commentators of the Qur’an said: “This verse and the verse after it were revealed about Bishr, the
hypocrite, and his opponent, a Jewish person, regarding their dispute over a piece of land. The Jew kept
dragging Bishr to the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, in order that he judges
between them while the hypocrite kept dragging the Jew to Ka‘b al-Ashraf, saying: ‘Muhammad will be
unfair with us!’ ” This incident has already been mentioned upon dealing with the words of Allah (…
how they would go for judgment (in their dispute) to false deities…) in Surah al-Nisa’ [4:60].
(Allah hath promised such of you as believe and do good work…) [24:55].
Al-Rabi‘ ibn Anas related that Abu’l-‘Aliyah said regarding this verse: “The Messenger of Allah, Allah
bless him and give him peace, and his Companions remained in Mecca, after the advent of the revelation,
for ten years in a state of fear: sleeping at night and waking in the morning with weapons at their sides.
Then the Prophet was commanded to migrate to Medina. One of his Companions asked him: ‘O Messenger
of Allah, there is not a single day in which we feel safe such that we can put down our weapons’.
The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: ‘It will not be long before one of you
will be sitting unarmed amidst huge numbers of people, none of whom carries a weapon’. Then, Allah,
exalted is He, revealed (Allah hath promised such of you as believe and do good work…) up to the end of
the verse. Consequently, Allah, exalted is He, enabled His Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace,
to have the upper hand over the Arabian peninsula, and the Muslims were able to put down their weapons
and feel safe. They remained safe after Allah, exalted is He, took to Himself His Prophet, and during
the reign of Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthman, may Allah be well pleased with them. When they fell into
that which they fell and were ungrateful, Allah brought fear into their hearts; they changed and so Allah,
17
Durr, :194.
18
Tabari, :133; Durr, :193-194.
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