The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 5) — Page 282
PT. 28 1 ركوعاتها ٢ سُورَةُ التَّحْرِيهِ مَدَنِيَّةٌ ٦٦ بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ nguy CH. 66 (AT-TAHRİM) 1. "In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. 4277 2. O Prophet! why dost thou forbid thyself that which Allah تَبْتَغِي مَرْضَاتَ اَزْوَاجِكَ وَاللهُ has made lawful to thee. Thou غَفُورٌ رَّحِيم seekest the pleasure of thy wives? And Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful. 4278 4277. Commentary: See 1:1. 4278. Commentary: "See 1:1. It is related that one day one of the wives of the Holy Prophet gave him a drink made from honey, which he seemed to like. Some of his other wives, out of pique, pointed out to him that his breath smelt of Maghāfir, a shrub the taste of which resembled that of honey but having a bad smell. The Holy Prophet, because of his delicate nature, promised not to take honey any more (Buldān). It is to this incident that the verse under comment is generally taken to refer. But it seems improbable that the Holy Prophet, merely to satisfy the pique of his wife or wives, should have taken such a drastic step as to have forbidden himself the use of some- thing which was lawful, particularly that in which, according to the Quran, "there is cure for men" (16:70). It appears the narrator or narrators of this incident in the traditions suffered from some misunderstanding or confusion, particularly when, accor- ding to one tradition, the Holy Prophet took honey from the house of Zainab, and it were 'A'ishah and Hafsah who contrived to draw him into making the aforesaid promise, while, according to another tradition, it was at the house of Hafsah that he was served with honey and that the wives who objected were ‘Ā’ishah, Zainab and Șafiyya. It appears, moreover, that according to the ḥadīth, two, or at the most three, of the Holy Prophet's wives were concerned in the incident, but, according to vv. 2 & 6 of the present Surah, all were connected with it, two of them taking a leading part (v. 5). These considerations indicate that the Surah refers to some incident of much greater significance than the mere taking of honey by the Holy Prophet at the house of one of his wives and of having been drawn into making a promise not to take it anymore. In the commentary on this 3178