This is a chapter We have sent down and made obligatory, and We have sent down in it clear verses so that you may take heed.
The adulteress and the adulterer: flog each of them one hundred lashes. Let no pity for them overcome you in the religion of God, if you believe in God and the Last Day. Let a group of believers witness their punishment.
The adulterer does not marry except an adulteress or an idolatress, and the adulteress is not married except by an adulterer or an idolater. This has been forbidden to the believers.
Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to produce four witnesses: flog them eighty lashes and never accept their testimony again. These are the corrupt ones.
Except those who repent after that and reform, for God is Forgiving, Merciful.
Those who accuse their wives and have no witnesses except themselves: the testimony of one of them is four testimonies by God that he is telling the truth.
The fifth testimony is that the curse of God be upon him if he is lying.
She can avert the punishment from herself by testifying four testimonies by God that he is lying.
The fifth testimony is that the wrath of God be upon her if he is telling the truth.
Were it not for the grace of God upon you and His mercy, and that God is Accepting of repentance, Wise.
Those who spread the slander are a group among you. Do not think it bad for you; rather, it is good for you. Each one of them will bear the sin they committed, and the one who took the lead in it will have a tremendous punishment.
Why, when you heard it, did the believing men and women not think well of one another and say, "This is an obvious lie"?
Why did they not produce four witnesses to support it? Since they did not produce the witnesses, they are, in God's sight, the liars.
Were it not for God's grace upon you and His mercy in this world and the Hereafter, a tremendous punishment would have touched you for what you plunged into.
You passed it from tongue to tongue and spoke with your mouths what you had no knowledge of, thinking it trivial while it was, in God's sight, tremendous.
Why, when you heard it, did you not say, "It is not for us to speak of this. Glory be to You! This is a monstrous slander"?
God warns you never to repeat anything like this, if you are believers.
God makes the verses clear to you, and God is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
Those who love to see indecency spread among the believers will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. God knows, and you do not know.
Were it not for God's grace upon you and His mercy, and that God is Compassionate, Merciful.
O you who believe, do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Whoever follows the footsteps of Satan should know that he commands indecency and evil. Were it not for God's grace upon you and His mercy, not one of you would ever be purified. But God purifies whom He wills, and God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
Let not those among you who possess grace and abundance swear to withhold giving to relatives, the needy, and those who emigrated in God's cause. Let them pardon and overlook. Do you not love that God should forgive you? God is Forgiving, Merciful.
Those who slander chaste, unsuspecting, believing women are cursed in this world and the Hereafter, and for them is a tremendous punishment.
On the Day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet will testify against them about what they used to do.
On that Day, God will pay them their true recompense in full, and they will know that God is the Manifest Truth.
Corrupt women are for corrupt men, and corrupt men are for corrupt women. Good women are for good men, and good men are for good women. These are innocent of what they say. For them is forgiveness and a generous provision.
O you who believe, do not enter houses other than your own until you have asked permission and greeted their inhabitants. That is better for you, so that you may be mindful.
If you find no one inside, do not enter until permission is given to you. If you are told to go back, then go back. That is purer for you, and God knows well what you do.
There is no blame on you for entering uninhabited buildings where there is something useful for you. God knows what you reveal and what you conceal.
Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and guard their private parts. That is purer for them. God is fully aware of what they do.
Tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts, and not to display their adornment except what normally appears. Let them draw their coverings over their chests, and not reveal their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, those whom their right hands possess, male attendants who have no desire, or children who are not yet aware of women's nakedness. Let them not stamp their feet to make known what they conceal of their adornment. Turn to God in repentance, all of you believers, so that you may succeed.
Marry off the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male and female servants. If they are poor, God will enrich them from His grace. God is All-Encompassing, All-Knowing.
Let those who cannot find the means to marry keep themselves abstinent until God enriches them from His grace. As for those your right hands possess who seek a contract of emancipation, grant it to them if you recognize goodness in them, and give them from the wealth of God that He has given you. Do not force your maids into prostitution if they desire chastity, seeking the fleeting gains of this worldly life. Whoever forces them, then after their coercion, God is Forgiving, Merciful.
We have sent down to you clear verses and examples from those who passed before you, and a lesson for those who are mindful of God.
God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The likeness of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass, the glass like a radiant star, lit from a blessed olive tree, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil would almost glow even if no fire touched it. Light upon light. God guides to His light whom He wills. God strikes parables for people. God knows all things.
In houses that God has permitted to be raised and where His name is remembered, glorifying Him therein morning and evening.
Men whom neither trade nor commerce distracts from the remembrance of God, from establishing prayer, and from giving charity. They fear a Day when hearts and eyes will be overturned.
So that God may reward them for the best of what they did and increase them from His grace. God provides for whom He wills without measure.
As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are like a mirage in a desert plain. The thirsty one thinks it is water until, when he reaches it, he finds it to be nothing. But he finds God there, and He pays him his account in full. God is swift in reckoning.
Or like layers of darkness in a deep sea, covered by waves, upon waves, upon clouds. Darkness upon darkness. If he stretches out his hand, he can barely see it. Whoever God gives no light to has no light at all.
Do you not see that everyone in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, and the birds with wings outspread? Each knows its own prayer and glorification. God knows well what they do.
To God belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and to God is the final return.
Do you not see that God drives the clouds, then joins them together, then piles them into masses, and you see the rain pouring from within them? He sends down from the sky, from mountains of hail, striking with it whom He wills and turning it away from whom He wills. The flash of His lightning nearly takes away the sight.
God alternates the night and the day. In that is a lesson for those with vision.
God created every creature from water. Among them are those that crawl on their bellies, those that walk on two legs, and those that walk on four. God creates what He wills. God has power over all things.
We have sent down clear verses. God guides whom He wills to a straight path.
They say, "We believe in God and in the Messenger, and we obey." Then a group of them turns away after that. Those are not believers.
When they are called to God and His Messenger to judge between them, a group of them turns away.
But if the right is theirs, they come to him in full submission.
Is there sickness in their hearts? Or do they doubt? Or do they fear that God and His Messenger will deal unjustly with them? No, it is they who are the wrongdoers.
The only response of the believers, when they are called to God and His Messenger to judge between them, is to say, "We hear and we obey." Those are the successful.
Whoever obeys God and His Messenger, fears God, and is mindful of Him: those are the triumphant.
They swear by God their most solemn oaths that if you commanded them, they would march forth. Say, "Do not swear. Sincere obedience is what is expected. God is fully aware of what you do."
Say, "Obey God and obey the Messenger." But if you turn away, then he is responsible for what he was charged with, and you are responsible for what you were charged with. If you obey him, you will be guided. The Messenger's duty is only to deliver the message clearly.
God has promised those among you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will make them successors on the earth, as He made those before them successors, and that He will establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them, and that He will replace their fear with security. They worship Me, associating nothing with Me. Whoever disbelieves after that: those are the defiantly disobedient.
Establish prayer, give charity, and obey the Messenger, so that you may receive mercy.
Do not think that the disbelievers can escape on earth. Their refuge is the Fire, and what a wretched destination.
O you who believe, let those whom your right hands possess and those among you who have not yet reached puberty ask your permission at three times: before the dawn prayer, when you lay aside your garments at noon, and after the night prayer. These are three times of privacy for you. Beyond these times, there is no blame on you or them as you move about attending to one another. This is how God makes clear to you the verses. God is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
When your children reach puberty, let them ask permission as those before them asked permission. This is how God makes clear to you His verses. God is All-Knowing, All-Wise.
Elderly women past the prospect of marriage incur no blame if they lay aside their outer garments, without displaying their adornment. But to refrain is better for them. God is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
There is no blame on the blind, no blame on the lame, no blame on the sick, nor on yourselves for eating from your own houses, or the houses of your fathers, or the houses of your mothers, or the houses of your brothers, or the houses of your sisters, or the houses of your paternal uncles, or the houses of your paternal aunts, or the houses of your maternal uncles, or the houses of your maternal aunts, or from houses whose keys you possess, or from the house of your friend. There is no blame on you whether you eat together or separately. When you enter houses, greet one another with a greeting from God, blessed and good. This is how God makes clear to you the verses so that you may understand.
The true believers are only those who believe in God and His Messenger, and when they are with him on a matter of common concern, they do not leave until they have asked his permission. Those who ask your permission are the ones who truly believe in God and His Messenger. So when they ask your permission for some affair of theirs, give permission to whomever you wish among them and ask God's forgiveness for them. God is Forgiving, Merciful.
Do not treat the Messenger's summons among you like your summons to one another. God knows those of you who slip away under cover of others. Let those who defy his command beware, for a trial may strike them or a painful punishment may strike them.
To God belongs everything in the heavens and the earth. He knows what you are engaged in, and on the Day they are returned to Him, He will inform them of what they did. God has knowledge of all things.