وَٱلَّذِينَ هُمْ لِفُرُوجِهِمْ حَٰفِظُونَ · إِلَّا عَلَىٰٓ أَزْوَٰجِهِمْ أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَٰنُهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ غَيْرُ مَلُومِينَ · فَمَنِ ٱبْتَغَىٰ وَرَآءَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُو۟لَٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْعَادُونَ
wa'lladhīna hum li-furūjihim ḥāfiẓūn · illā ʿalā azwājihim aw mā malakat aymānuhum fa-innahum ghayru malūmīn · fa-mani'btaghā warāʾa dhālika fa-ulāʾika humu'l-ʿādūn
"They are those who guard their chastity — except with their spouses…; in that they are not blamed. Whoever seeks beyond that — those are the ones who transgress."
The concrete sense of the root: the opening, the cleft, the gap between two things. Faraj — an interval; infirāj — an opening out; and from here comes the sense of the opening up of distress (faraj — relief).
In this context the word is a figure used for the private parts, and the lexicographers record it as such. And there is a point worth recording: the same root is used in the Qurʾān for the sky as well — mā lahā min furūj (Qāf 50/6, "it has no cracks in it"). That verse was treated in Qāf. The same root: in one place the proof of an unbroken surface, in the other the area that is to be guarded. I record this as an observation about the language, and I build no connection of ruling between the two uses.
Ḥāfiẓ: guarding, watching over. The root ح-ف-ظ was treated at al-Burūj 85/22 (fī lawḥin maḥfūẓ) and at al-Ṭāriq 86/4 (laysa ʿalayhā ḥāfiẓ).
A detail of word order must be recorded, and the lexicographers dwell on it: in the fifth verse the particle is لِ (li-furūjihim), and in the exception in the sixth verse the particle turns to عَلَىٰ (illā ʿalā azwājihim).
| Reading | Explanation |
|---|---|
| 1 | The exception attaches not to the verb ḥāfiẓūn but to the sentence as a whole; ʿalā carries the sense "with regard to…" |
| 2 | Ḥāfiẓūn here means "those who hold themselves back", and ʿalā marks the place where that holding back is lifted |
The construction names an institution that in fact existed in the period the Qurʾān was revealed — slavery. Per the method (Method), I issue no legal ruling here and I do not go into the details of the historical institution. Two matters must be recorded, and both can be verified from the text:
One. The Qurʾān does not establish this institution; it names an arrangement it found already in place in the society into which it was revealed.
Two. Other verses of the Qurʾān in the same field set the release from slavery again and again as a good, an expiation and a goal: fakku raqaba (al-Balad 90/13 — treated in al-Balad), fa-taḥrīru raqaba (al-Nisāʾ 4/92, al-Māʾida 5/89, al-Mujādala 58/3 — treated in al-Mujādala), fa-kātibūhum (al-Nūr 24/33).
Beyond these two entries I draw no conclusion. The historical and legal frame of the matter cannot be settled under this verse, and no attempt is made to settle it.
The concrete sense of the root: to cross a boundary, to step over it. From the same root come ʿaduww (enemy — the one who tramples the boundary), ʿudwān (transgression), ʿadā (he ran, he crossed).
The choice of word is worth recording: the seventh verse does not say "sinners" or "fāsiqūn". The picture in the word is the crossing of a line — and the sixth verse had just drawn that line. The verdict, that is, is attached to the boundary that has been drawn.