O wives of the Prophet, you are not like anyone among women. If you fear Allah, then do not be soft in speech [to men], lest he in whose heart is disease should covet, but speak with appropriate speech.
"Aḥad" (anyone/one) is originally derived from waḥd, meaning "the one." It was then applied to general negation, where it applies equally to the masculine, the feminine, the singular, and everything beyond it.
The meaning of His saying: {You are not like anyone among women}: You are not like any single group among the groups of women. That is: if you were to examine the community of women group by group, you would not find a single group equal to you in virtue and precedence.
Similar to this is His saying: {And those who believe in Allah and His messengers and do not make a distinction between any of them} (An-Nisāʾ: 152). He means: between any single group of them, equating them all in that they are upon the clear truth.
{If you fear Allah}: If you desire piety, or if you are already pious.
{Then do not be soft in speech}: Do not answer with speech that is soft—that is, effeminate or languid, like the speech of those who are suspicious or immoral.
{Lest he in whose heart is disease should covet}: That is, suspicion and immorality. It has been recited in the jussive mood (fayaṭmaʿ), as a conjunction to the position of the prohibitive verb, based on the fact that they were forbidden from softness in speech, and the one with the diseased heart was forbidden from coveting. It is as if it were said: "Do not be soft, so that he does not covet."
Ibn Muḥayṣin recited it with a kasra on the mīm (fayaṭmaʿi): The way to understand this is by damma on the yāʾ with the kasra on the mīm, attributing the action to the pronoun of the speech. That is: "Lest the suspicious speech covet."
{And speak a fair word}: A word far removed from the covetousness of the suspicious person, delivered with seriousness and firmness, without effeminacy—or a good word that is simultaneously firm.
{And abide in your houses and do not display yourselves as [was] the display of the former times of ignorance. And establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet's] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification.}
