Does the Verse 26 of Surah Noor Evidence the Excellence of Ayesha?

Does the Verse 26 of Surah Noor Evidence the Excellence of Ayesha?

Ibn al Hashimi argues:

If the Shia accuse Aisha (رضّى الله عنها) of being vile, then they are accusing the Prophet (صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم) of being vile. Allah says: “Vile women are for vile men, and vile men for vile women. Good women are for good men, and good men for good women; such are innocent of that which people say: For them is pardon and a bountiful provision.” (Quran, 24:26) This is the absolute verdict on the character of Aisha (رضّى الله عنها), and stands as a refutation against all the slander made against her. This verse was revealed in regards to Aisha (رضّى الله عنها) in the incident of al-Ifk, and this is agreed upon by even the authentic Shia Tafseer. So we wonder then why the Shia feel comfortable with slandering her character.

In their attempt to defend Ayesha, Ansar.org state:

Aysha deserved all this respect, regard, and more from Ahl Al-Sunnah because she is the wife of the pure prophet peace be upon him that he chose to be his wife because she is pure too. Allah Almighty says, “Women impure are for men impure, and men impure for women impure and women of purity are for men of purity, and men of purity are for women of purity: these are not affected by what people say: for them there is forgiveness, and a provision honourable.” (Surat Al-Noor, 26).

Reply One

Here Allah (swt) is talking about the common example of people, a pious man will not intentionally search out an ill-chartered woman and vice versa. To say that this is a precedent that pious men ONLY have pious wives and impure men only have impure wives, is absolutely baseless and contradicts the Qur’an. To prove the fallacy of Abu Sulaiman’s claim all we need to do is to cite these two verses from Surah Tahreem verses 66:10-11, which incidentally had descended as a warning to Ayesha and Hafsa:

“Allah has set forth an example to the disbeliever’s, the wife Of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were both married to two servants from among our righteous servants, but they were deceitful/treacherous to their husbands. And they benefited nothing before Allah on the account of their (husbands). Instead they were told: “Enter the Fire with those who enter.” Allah cited an example for the believers, the wife of Pharaoh when she said: “O my Lord, build for me a house in paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his deeds; and save me from the people who do wrong”.

If pious men ONLY marry pious women, how is it that Prophet’s Nuh (as) and Lut (as) both had wives that are in Hell for their acts of deceit and treachery? If impious men only marry impious women then how is it Pharaoh, the enemy of Allah (swt) was married to Asiya, who is extolled for her piety?

Reply Two: According to Sunni commentators the verse does not refer to men and women, rather it refers to vulgar and decent ‘discourse’ respectively

Our opponents often make use of the cited verse for their benefit by translating and interpreting it as referring to a natural phenomenon, that only a pure man and woman can be tied in a marital bond and likewise only an impure man and woman can enter into marriage and no other situation can ever occur, this interpretation is of course flawed for more than one reason, most importantly, for the reason we explained in the above mentioned reply. Having said this, we may reveal to our readers that the verse has been worded in a figurative sense and the words ‘women’ or ‘men’ do not, per se, find mention therein rather the Arabic words used in the verse are Khabeethat and Tayeebaat. The cunning Nawasib would certainly give the impression that it there exists a unanimous opinion that this verse provides the message that they are interpreting and strenuously advancing before us, but we would like to spoil their party as the ‘majority opinion’ regarding this verse amongst the Ahl’ul Sunnah is something different. Allow us to quote Baghwi who in his Tafseer, stated:

ال أكثر المفسرين: الخبيثات من القول والكلام للخبيثين من الناس. { وَٱلْخَبِيثُونَ } ، من الناس، { لِلْخَبِيثَـٰتِ } ، من القول، والكلام، { وَٱلطَّيِّبَـٰتُ } ، من القول، { لِلطَّيِّبِينَ } ، من الناس، { وَٱلطَّيِّبُونَ } ، من الناس، { لِلْطَّيِّبَـٰتِ } ، من القول، والمعنى: أن الخبيث من القول لا يليق إلا بالخبيث من الناس والطيب لا يليق إلا بالطيب من الناس

According to the majority of Mufasireen, it means that bad words and conversations are suitable for bad people and bad people are actually suitable for bad words. Similarly good words are suitable for good people and good people are suitable for good words. The conclusion of this would therefore be that bad words are always uttered by bad people and good words are always spoken by good people.

Qadhi Showkani who in his Tafseer Fatah al-Qadeer, Volume 4 page 27 has stated:

قال مجاهد، وسعيد بن جبير، وعطاء، وأكثر المفسرين: المعنى الكلمات الخبيثات من القول للخبيثين من الرجال، والخبيثون من الرجال للخبيثات من الكلمات، والكلمات الطيبات من القول للطيبين من الناس، والطيبون من الناس للطيبات من الكلمات. قال النحاس: وهذا أحسن ما قيل.

Mujahid, Saeed bin Jubair, Atta and according to the majority of Mufasireen, the term ‘Khabeethat’ means that bad words are suitable for bad men and among all the men, the bad ones are suitable for such bad words. Similarly term ‘Tayeebbaat’ means that decent/good words are suitable for good people and among all the people, the good ones are suitable for such good words. According to Nahas, this is the best commentary of this verse.

Nahas refered here is a prominent Sunni scholar Abu Jaffar al-Nahas (d. 338 A.H).Similarly, Thalabi in his Kashaf al-Bayan fi Tafseer al-Quran, Volume 7 page 86 stated:

قال أكثر المفسّرين: الخبيثات من القول للخبيثين من الناس { وَٱلْخَبِيثُونَ } من الناس { لِلْخَبِيثَاتِ } من القول { وَٱلطَّيِّبَاتُ } من القول { لِلطَّيِّبِينَ } من الناس { وَٱلطَّيِّبُونَ } من الناس { لِلْطَّيِّبَاتِ } من القول.

According to the majority of Mufasireen, bad words are suitable for bad people and bad people are suitable for bad words similarly good words are suitable for good people and good people are suitable for good words.

So here we just cited the decision rendered by the ‘majority of’ Sunni scholars regarding the actual interpretation of the cited verse and as mentioned by Ibn Abdul bar in his famed work al-Estzkar, Volume 1 page 524, the majority opinion is a proof against those who oppose such an opinion.

Reply Three: According to commentators ‘impure’ refers to ‘fornicator’ and ‘pure’ refers to ‘chaste’ 

We would look forward to Abu Sulaiman’s commentary of these verses in light of his claim. Before we close our discussions on this verse, we should point out that there is no need to use this verse to shield the sins committed by Ayesha since the verse should be understood in the context in which it was revealed, namely its discussion about fornication and chastity. No Shia or Sunni has even the slightest doubt over the chastity of the Prophet (s) and all his wives that in effect ends the debate! Therefore, even if it is accepted that this verse literally talks about ‘men’ and ‘women’ and not in figurative sense (as discussed above) even then it is to be understood in its proper context which is about fornicators and chaste men and women. Imam Shawkani in Tafsir Fatah al-Qadeer, Volume 4 page 27 confirms that the impurity and purity referred to in this verse are for fornication and chastity respectively:

الخبيثات الزواني والطيبات العفائف وكذا الخبيثون والطيبون

“Impure women are the fornicators, the women of purity are the chaste and so are the impure men and the purity of men”

Does the verse of Surah Noor evidence any individual merit of Ayesha or guarantee her protection from criticism?

Ibn al Hashimi emotively argues:

Allah Almighty Himself declared Aisha (رضّى الله عنها) innocent and warns everyone not to make any accusations or slander against Aisha (رضّى الله عنها). He says: “Allah warns you to never repeat anything like this again, if you are indeed believers!” (Quran, 24:17)

Ibn al Hashimi states:

The Shia say:The verses in Soorat al-Noor apply only to the specific charges levied against Aa’ishah in the incident of Al-Ifk and not to any other accusations against her.Rebuttal:Allah (عز و جل) says: “Allah warns you to never repeat anything similar to this again, if you are indeed believers.” [al-Noor 24:17] By the words “anything similar”, we see that it cannot possibly refer only to the incident of Al-Ifk, but rather it applies to any similar slander against Aisha (رضّى الله عنها). Indeed, accusing her of fabricating Hadith, of being one of the Imams of Kufr, and other such things are even more egregious than Zinnah. Therefore, not only is this slander similar to that of those who criticized her in the incident of Al-Ifk, but it is in fact a far more reprehensible thing to utter against her.

Ibn al Hashimi emotively argues:

No believer should feel comfortable slandering a woman who was specifically defended in the Quran by Allah Almighty, a person whom the Quran warns against slandering in the strictest of tones, declaring those who do so to be unbelievers. During the incident of al-Ifk, the Prophet (صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم) publically denounced the Munafiqoon and said that he knew nothing bad about his family; so why then do the Shia scholars insult the Prophetic family by speaking ill of them, even when the Quran and Hadith both exonerate Aisha (رضّى الله عنها)?

Ibn al Hashimi’s knowledge of the Arabic language and use of logic is clearly deficient. Where is his linguistic proof? He has none. It is one thing to claim something, and a completely different thing to prove it, we invite Ibn al Hashimi and his fellow advocates to furnish their evidence and we will address their submissions accordingly. The reality is clear for all to see, the lessons from the verse are clear that one should not make false allegations such as those levelled against Ayesha. They purely relate to the allegations that were falsely levelled against Ayesha. This Nasibi really is now clutching at straws by suggesting something different. The entire verse talks about the innocence of Ayesha from the particular allegation of adultery discussed above. That is the entire theme of the verse, so when Allah (swt) says:

“Allah warns you to never repeat anything like this again, if you are indeed believers!”

He (swt) is making it clear to the Sahaba that they should steer clear from saying the like of such a shameless allegation of adultery again.

If Ibn al-Hashimi and his likes are still adamant about their self deduced meaning of the verse under discussion in order to provide blanket immunity to Ayesha, let us substantiate our stance through some books our opponents adhere to, such as:

1. Zad al-Masir, by Ibn Jawzi, v5, p347
2. Taysir al-Karim, by Abdulrahman al-Saadei, p564
3. Tafsir Muqatel, Muqatil bin Sulayman, v2, p413
4. Tafsir ibn Abi Hatem, by Ibn Abi Hatim, v8, p2549
5. Tafsir al-Samarqandi, by Samarqandi, v2, p503
6. Tafsir al-Nasafi, by Nasafi, v3, p139

For the sake of brevity, let us quote from Tafsir al-Samarqandi:

أن تعدودوا لمثله أبدا) يعني القذف)

“(to never repeat anything like this again) means the allegation of fornication”