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37
وَإِذ تَقولُ لِلَّذي أَنعَمَ اللَّهُ عَلَيهِ وَأَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِ أَمسِك عَلَيكَ زَوجَكَ وَاتَّقِ اللَّهَ وَتُخفي في نَفسِكَ مَا اللَّهُ مُبديهِ وَتَخشَى النّاسَ وَاللَّهُ أَحَقُّ أَن تَخشاهُ ۖ فَلَمّا قَضىٰ زَيدٌ مِنها وَطَرًا زَوَّجناكَها لِكَي لا يَكونَ عَلَى المُؤمِنينَ حَرَجٌ في أَزواجِ أَدعِيائِهِم إِذا قَضَوا مِنهُنَّ وَطَرًا ۚ وَكانَ أَمرُ اللَّهِ مَفعولًا

Yusuf Ali

Behold! Thou didst say to one who had received the grace of God1 and thy favour: “Retain thou (in wedlock) thy wife, and fear God.” But thou didst hide in thy heart2 that which God was about to make manifest: thou didst fear the people, but it is more fitting that thou shouldst3 fear God. Then when Zaid had dissolved (his marriage) with her, with the necessary4 (formality), We joined her in marriage to thee: in order that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the Believers in (the matter of) marriage with the wives5 of their adopted sons, when the latter have dissolved with the necessary (formality) (their marriage) with them. And God’s command must be fulfilled.
  • This was Zaid, son of Ḥāritha, one of the first to accept the faith of Islam. He was freedman of the holy Prophet, who loved him as a son and gave him in marriage to his own cousin Zainab. The marriage however turned out unhappy. See next note.
  • Zaid’s marriage with the Prophet’s cousin Zainab, daughter of Jaḥsh, was celebrated in Mecca eight years before the Hijrat, did not turn out happy. Zainab the high-born looked down upon Zaid the freedman who had been a slave. And he was not comely to look at. Both were good people in their own ways, and both loved the Prophet, but there was mutual incompatibility, and this is fatal to married life. Zaid wished to divorce her, but the Prophet asked him to hold his hand, and he obeyed. She was closely related to the Prophet; he had given a handsome marriage gift on her marriage to Zaid; and people would certainly talk if such a marriage was broken off, and poor Zainab’s reputation would be ruined. But marriages are made on earth, not in heaven, and it is no part of God’s Plan to torture people in a bond which should be a source of happiness but actually is a source of misery. Zaid’s wish—indeed the mutual wish of the couple—was for the time being put away, but it became eventually an established fact, and everybody came to know of it.
  • All actual facts are referred to God. When the marriage is unhappy, Islam permits the bond to be dissolved, provided that all interests concerned are safeguarded. Apparently there was no issue here to be considered. Zainab had to be considered, and she obtained the dearest wish of her heart in being raised to be a Mother of the Believers, with all the dignity and responsibility of that position. See n. to verse 33:28 above.
  • The ʿIddat or period of waiting after divorce (2:228 and first n.) was duly completed.
  • The Pagan superstition and taboo about adopted sons had to be destroyed. See 33:4-5 and respectivelty last and first belonging notes.