al-Nūr 24:58

Yā ayyuhā'lladhīna āmanū li-yastaʾdhinkumu'lladhīna malakat aymānukum wa'lladhīna lam yablughu'l-ḥuluma minkum thalātha marrāt, min qabli ṣalāti'l-fajri wa ḥīna taḍaʿūna thiyābakum mina'l-ẓahīrati wa min baʿdi ṣalāti'l-ʿishāʾ, thalāthu ʿawrātin lakum, laysa ʿalaykum wa lā ʿalayhim junāḥun baʿdahunn, ṭawwāfūna ʿalaykum baʿḍukum ʿalā baʿḍ, ka-dhālika yubayyinu'llāhu lakumu'l-āyāt, wa'llāhu ʿalīmun ḥakīm

"O you who believe, let those your right hands possess, and those among you who have not yet reached puberty, ask leave of you at three times: before the dawn prayer, when you lay aside your garments in the heat of noon, and after the night prayer. These are three times of nakedness for you. Beyond these there is no fault upon you or upon them; you go about among one another. Thus God makes His verses clear to you. God is knowing, wise."

The twenty-seventh verse regulated the outer door of the house. The fifty-eighth regulates the inside of the house.

And this is one of the most striking repetitions in the sūra's structure:

The sūra takes up the matter of asking leave twice, and sets a section of light between them.

I record this as an observation about the word order; the places of the verses stand in the text.

The most striking side of the verse is what the three chosen times have in common:

What the three have in common: times when a man may not be dressed.

And the verse says this itself: thalāthu ʿawrātin lakum — "three times of ʿawra for you".

ظَهِيرَة — root ظ-ه-ر: noon, the hottest hour of the day. The word has to do with the sense of "coming out on top" in the root: the time when the sun stands highest.

حُلُم — root ح-ل-م: a dream; and puberty. Ḥulm — a dream. And the word's sense of puberty is a usage the lexicographers record.

From the same root comes ḥilm (forbearance, self-restraint) too, and it was named at al-Ḥujurāt, 49/6, as the opposite of jahl.

Root: ع-و-ر. This root was analysed at al-Aḥzāb, 33/13; I rely on that treatment. The note there:

عَوْرَة — root ع-و-ر. And the field of sense of the root is wide; what joins all of it is a lack, an opening, an unprotectedness.

And the derivatives given there: aʿwar (one blind in one eye — lacking on one side), ʿāriya (what is borrowed — not owned permanently).

And the use of the word here is worth noting and is striking: the verse uses ʿawra of a time.

Thalāthu ʿawrātin lakum — "three times of ʿawra".

The word, that is, is used here not of a region of the body but of three moments of the day.

This agrees exactly with the root sense of the word, and I record this as my own reading: at the centre of the root stands "unprotectedness". And a man is unprotected at three times of the day. The word is used as the name not of a place but of a state.

And this usage may be compared with ʿawrāti'l-nisāʾ in the thirty-first verse:

The same word, on two different planes. I record this as an observation about the word order.

This is the most human clause in the verse, and its place in the arrangement is worth noting.

Root: ط-و-ف. The same root as ṭāʾifa in the second verse: to turn, to go round about. Ṭawāf is from the same root.

And ṭawwāfūn is an intensive form: "those who go about a great deal".

The function of the clause is this, and I record it as my own reading: immediately after bringing in a restriction, the verse explains why the restriction is confined to three times.

The reason is a fact: people living in the same house pass one another continually. To ask leave at every passing would make life impossible.

And the verse names this not as an excuse but as a normal condition: baʿḍukum ʿalā baʿḍ — "one of you beside another".

The provision, that is, is measured so as not to make life hard.

And this is on the same line as the "note of ease" recorded at al-Baqara, 2/185.

One. That privacy exists within the house as well.

The most striking side of the verse is that it places privacy not only outside the house but inside it too.

The twenty-seventh verse regulated the entering of another's house. The fifty-eighth regulates the privacy of people living in their own house, with their own family, in respect of one another.

And the addressees of the provision are worth noting: the servants and the children. That is, those within the house least able to object.

Two. And how the measure is built.

The verse builds privacy not as a list of prohibitions but as three times. And what the three times have in common is that a man has not made himself ready.

Its counterpart today is a measure that can be drawn from the wording of the verse: there are moments in which a man has not made himself ready, and those moments are guarded. And those moments are not the whole day — they are countable.

Three. That the limit of the provision is set as well.

Laysa ʿalaykum wa lā ʿalayhim junāḥun baʿdahunn — the time outside the restriction is expressly left free.

This is the sūra's general character, and it was recorded at the twenty-ninth verse: beside every rule, the place where the rule does not apply is written too.