ﲧ ﲨ ﲩ ﲪ ﲫ ﲬ ﲭ ﲮ ﲯ ﲰ ﲱ ﲲ ﲳ ﲴ ﲵ ﲶ ﲷ ﲸ ﲹ ﲺ ﲻ ﲼ ﲽ ﲾ ﲿ ﳀ ﳁ ﳂ ﳃ ﳄ ﳅ ﳆ
The Prophet is more worthy of the believers than themselves, and his wives are [in the position of] their mothers. And those of [blood] relationship are more entitled [to inheritance] in the decree of Allah than the [other] believers and the emigrants, except that you may do to your close associates a kindness [through bequest]. That was in the Book inscribed.
Tafsir
Verse range: 33:6
The Prophet is more worthy of the believers than themselves.
This statement affirms the validity of what proceeded from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), specifically regarding his marriage to Zaynab. It serves as a response to a potential objection.
The Objection and the Response:
Suppose someone argued: "Even if adopted sons are not like real sons, what about someone whom another person names as a son? If that adopted son has something desirable that would be unbecoming for the one who named him to take back or criticize according to custom, what then?"
Allah the Almighty responds to this by saying: "The Prophet is more worthy of the believers than themselves."
The principle here is that the fulfillment of needs follows a hierarchy:
Customarily, the first level is prioritized over the second. Similarly, in Sharia, the aqilah (blood relatives responsible for blood money) bears the penalty for their own, but not for strangers. The second level is prioritized over the third (evident in the obligation of maintenance/Nafaqah). The third level is prioritized over the fourth, as the self takes precedence over others. The Prophet (PBUH) alluded to this by saying: "Start with yourself, then those you support."
If a person has just enough to cover one of their two legs or satisfy a need in one half of their body, and they take the covering from one side to cover the other, no one can object. Unless one limb is more noble than the other—for example, if a person shields their eye with their hand while exposing their head (the seat of the senses) to severe cold to protect their hair, this is rationally obligatory. If someone reverses this, they are questioned: "Why did you do that?"
Given this, the Prophet (PBUH) is more worthy of the believer than the believer is of himself. If a believer prioritizes satisfying his own needs over the needs of the Prophet, it is like someone oiling their hair while leaving their head exposed to extreme cold, intending to nurture the hair while unknowingly harming the head from which the hair grows.
Similarly, satisfying one's own need means dedicating oneself to the worship of Allah. However, the knowledge of how to worship comes only from the Messenger (PBUH). If a person neglects the Prophet from whom they learn the manner of worship while attending to their own needs (like nurturing hair while neglecting the head), they have not truly satisfied their need, because satisfying a need means achieving a greater benefit, and neglecting the Prophet yields no benefit, let alone fulfilling a need.
Thus, it is established that if the Prophet (PBUH) desires something, it is forbidden for the Ummah to interfere with it, based on clear wisdom.
And His wives are their mothers.
This is another affirmation. Allah made the Prophet's wives like mothers only to cut off the Ummah's desire to attach any worldly interest to the Prophet (PBUH). If his heart is attached to a woman who shares the status of the wives in terms of attachment, she becomes forbidden to others just as his wives are forbidden to others.
If someone asks: "How can Allah say 'And His wives are their mothers' while previously saying 'Allah has not made your wives whom you pronounce Zihar upon as your mothers' (implying that one who did not give birth cannot become a mother), and also stating elsewhere, 'Indeed, the only mothers for them are those who gave birth to them'?"
We reply that the statement in the preceding verse, "And Allah speaks the truth, and He guides to the [right] way," is the answer. It means that the religious law (Sharia) is like reality (Haqiqah). Therefore, when reality cannot be fully ascertained, the wise person refers to the Sharia.
For instance, if two women both claim the same child without proof, and one swears an oath while the other does not, the child is ruled to belong to the one who swore. However, if it is proven that the swearing woman was pre-pubescent or a virgin by clear evidence, the child is not ruled to be hers. This shows that when the reality cannot be reached, one reverts to the Sharia. In fact, in rare instances, the Sharia overrides reality—for example, the adulterer is not established as the father of the child born of adultery.
Once this is established, the Lawgiver (Allah) has the authority to rule. Therefore, the statement "This is my mother" is a statement understood not from physical reality, and no physical reality results from it. However, the statement of the Lawgiver (the Prophet's wives are their mothers) is true, and what supports it is that the Lawgiver is the one who establishes realities as realities. He has the right to dispose of them.
Do you not see that a mother only becomes a mother because Allah created the child in her womb? If He had created the child in the belly of another woman, that other woman would be the mother. Since He is the one who establishes the true mother, He has the right to name a woman a mother and grant her the ruling of motherhood.
The wisdom behind making His wives like our mothers is that Allah made the father's wife forbidden to his son because the wife is a source of jealousy and contention. If the son marries a woman previously married to the father, it leads to severing kinship and disobedience. However, the Prophet (PBUH) is more noble and higher in rank than the father, and deserving of greater appeasement. The father nurtures only in this world, whereas the Prophet (PBUH) nurtures in this world and the Hereafter. Therefore, His wives must have the status of the fathers' wives.
If someone asks: "Why did He not say, 'The Prophet is your father,' which would achieve this meaning, or say, 'His wives are the wives of your father'?"
We reply: There is wisdom in this. We established that if the Prophet (PBUH) desires the wife of any believer, that believer must relinquish her so the Prophet may marry her. If Allah had said, "He is your father," then the Prophet's wives would be permanently forbidden to the believers' husbands. Furthermore, since Allah made him more worthy of them than themselves, the self takes precedence over the father, based on the saying: "Start with yourself, then those you support." Thus, a person in need of sustenance is not obligated to spend it on their father, but they are obligated to spend it for the Prophet (PBUH).
Moreover, His wives have the ruling of the father's wives in that their children are not forbidden to the believers, nor are their sisters or mothers, even though all these categories are forbidden in the case of a true mother or a foster mother.
And those of [blood] relationship are more worthy of one another in the Book of Allah than [other] believers and the emigrants, except that you should do to your allies an act of kindness [as a bequest]. That was inscribed in the Book.
This points to inheritance. The phrase "except that you should do to your allies an act of kindness" refers to the bequest (Wasiyyah). This means: If you make a bequest, those who are not heirs take precedence [in receiving the bequest]. If you do not make a bequest, then the heirs are more worthy of your inheritance and what you leave behind.
If someone asks: "What connection do inheritance and bequest have to what was previously mentioned?"
We reply: A strong, subtle connection, only apparent to one whom Allah has guided with His light. The connection is that anyone other than the Prophet (PBUH), during his lifetime, does not acquire the wealth of others, and after his death, his wealth does not go to anyone other than his heirs. However, the Prophet (PBUH), during his lifetime, acquired the wealth of others if he desired it, and his wealth did not pass to his heirs after his death. It is as if Allah compensated the Prophet (PBUH) for the cutting off of his inheritance by granting him the ability to possess the wealth of others, and compensated the believers by ensuring that what the Prophet left behind returned to them. This removes any burden from the believers that if the Prophet desired something of theirs during his life, and then died, that wealth would remain with his heirs, thus being lost to them.
Therefore, Allah said: "And those of [blood] relationship are more worthy of one another in the Book of Allah," meaning inheritance applies among you, so the wealth of one transfers to another through inheritance, but there is no inheritance between the Prophet and his relatives. Therefore, He should have a substitute for this: that He is more worthy during His life of what is in your hands.
The second point is that Allah mentioned evidence that the Prophet (PBUH) is more worthy of the believers: that the closest relatives are more worthy of one another. Then, if someone desires kindness toward a friend, he makes a bequest to him, and that friend becomes more worthy than a relative. It is as if the bequest cuts off the inheritance, saying: "This is my wealth; it will not transfer from me except to whom I desire." Similarly, Allah granted His friend (the Prophet) what he desired from this world, and what remains of it goes to others.
The phrase "That was inscribed in the Book" has two interpretations:
And [recall] when We took from the prophets their covenant, and from you, and from Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, the son of Mary. And We took from them a solemn covenant.
