إِن تُبْدُوا۟ شَيْـًٔا أَوْ تُخْفُوهُ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمًا · لَّا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِنَّ فِىٓ ءَابَآئِهِنَّ وَلَآ أَبْنَآئِهِنَّ وَلَآ إِخْوَٰنِهِنَّ وَلَآ أَبْنَآءِ إِخْوَٰنِهِنَّ وَلَآ أَبْنَآءِ أَخَوَٰتِهِنَّ وَلَا نِسَآئِهِنَّ وَلَا مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَٰنُهُنَّ وَٱتَّقِينَ ٱللَّهَ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ شَهِيدًا
In tubdū shayʾan aw tukhfūhu fa-inna'llāha kāna bi-kulli shayʾin ʿalīmā · Lā junāḥa ʿalayhinna fī ābāʾihinna wa lā abnāʾihinna wa lā ikhwānihinna wa lā abnāʾi ikhwānihinna wa lā abnāʾi akhawātihinna wa lā nisāʾihinna wa lā mā malakat aymānuhunn, wa'ttaqīna'llāh, inna'llāha kāna ʿalā kulli shayʾin shahīdā
"Whether you disclose a thing or conceal it, God knows all things. · There is no blame on them concerning their fathers, their sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, or those their right hands possess. And guard yourselves against God. God is Witness over all things."
أَبْدَىٰ / أَخْفَىٰ — to disclose / to conceal. And this pair occurred in the thirty-seventh verse: wa tukhfī fī nafsika ma'llāhu mubdīh.
| Verse | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| 37 | The Prophet | He was concealing it within himself; God was to bring it out |
| 54 | Everyone | Whether you disclose or conceal |
And what was said of the Prophet in the thirty-seventh verse is repeated for everyone in the fifty-fourth. The method of the sūra: from the particular to the general.
And the placing of the verse immediately after the fifty-third is meaningful too: the fifty-third verse took as its subject a discomfort left unsaid (fa-yastaḥyī minkum). The fifty-fourth states that what is left unsaid is known too.
The verse brings an exception to the regulation of the screen in the fifty-third verse and gives a list.
| # | Category |
|---|---|
| 1 | Their fathers |
| 2 | Their sons |
| 3 | Their brothers |
| 4 | Their brothers' sons |
| 5 | Their sisters' sons |
| 6 | Their women |
| 7 | Those their right hands possess |
The structure of the list is worth recording: the first five categories are established by the tie of blood.
And this links with the fourth and fifth verses of the sūra. There it was said that the tie of lineage cannot be established by speech; here a consequence of the tie of lineage becomes visible: the list of kinship is drawn according to blood.
That is, the sūra shows a second application of the principle in the fourth verse — the first was in the thirty-seventh (the wife of an adopted son), the second is here (the degrees of kinship).
In Sūrat al-Nūr (24/31) there is a wider list, and the differences between the two lists have been taken up in classical exegesis. This commentary does not enter into legal detail.
وَلَا مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَٰنُهُنَّ — the note entered at the fiftieth verse holds here too; I do not repeat it.
This is a fact of word order worth recording: immediately after a list of permission a command of taqwā is placed.
And its function is this: the list shows where a boundary does not end. But the existence of the list does not mean that no measure at all remains with those inside it.
The link with the first verse of the sūra: the command ittaqi'llāh was given to the Prophet at the head of the sūra. In the fifty-fifth verse the same command is repeated in the feminine plural form.
Root: ش-ه-د. To be present, to see, to bear witness. In the forty-fifth verse shāhid was used of the Prophet; here shahīd is used of God.
And the agreement of the verse-ending with the verse: the verse regulates a field not seen from outside (the inside of the house) and closes with the name that states the widest form of seeing.