al-Aḥzāb 33:52

Lā yaḥillu laka'l-nisāʾu min baʿdu wa lā an tabaddala bihinna min azwājin wa law aʿjabaka ḥusnuhunna illā mā malakat yamīnuk, wa kāna'llāhu ʿalā kulli shayʾin raqībā

"Women are not lawful for you after this, nor that you should exchange your wives for others — even though their beauty please you. Except those your right hand possesses. God is Watchful over all things."

The fiftieth verse had stated a widening; the fifty-second sets a limit.

And that the two verses come one after the other is worth recording: two verses after bringing a regulation, the sūra draws a limit around that regulation.

I record this as a datum of the text.

To change, to put another in the place of a thing. And this root occurred in the twenty-third verse: mā baddalū tabdīlā — "they made no change at all."

The same root, once the not changing of a word, once the not changing of a spouse. I record it.

أَعْجَبَ — root ع-ج-ب. To astonish, to please. ʿAjīb — astonishing; iʿjāb — admiration, being taken with something.

And the placing of this note in the verse is striking.

The verse could have laid down the prohibition and passed on. Instead it also writes in what circumstance the prohibition will become hard: wa law aʿjabaka ḥusnuhunna.

This is a recurring feature in the Qurʾān's way of framing a prohibition, and I record it: the prohibition is laid down while showing awareness of the human inclination. That is, the verse does not tell the one addressed "this is easy for you".

I give this as my own reading; its ground is the presence of the law clause.

Root: ر-ق-ب. And the concrete sense of the root is the neck: raqaba — a neck. Raqīb — the watcher; and the link is this: the one who watches stretches out his neck to look.

From the same root come murāqaba (observation) and irtiqāb.

And the agreement of the verse-ending with the verse: the verse sets a limit, and the verse-ending states that the limit is watched. The picture in the root of the word supports this too: one who looks from a distance, stretching out his neck.