✦ AT A GLANCE ✦
التحريم
At-Tahrim
✦ Why this name
The Prohibition — at-Tahrim, from the opening verse, where the Prophet ﷺ had forbidden himself something lawful to please his household.
✦ When it came
Madinan. It deals with a private matter in the Prophet's ﷺ home, and then draws a general lesson about who is responsible for whom.
✦ The story
The surah takes a domestic episode and turns it into a principle: *"O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones."* Your responsibility does not stop at your own soul.
And it ends with three women, held up as the Quran's final word on the question of whether anyone's faith depends on the household they belong to.
The wife of Nuh and the wife of Lut — married to prophets, and it did not save them. The wife of Pharaoh — married to the worst tyrant in the Quran, who prayed *"My Lord, build for me near You a house in Paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his deeds."* And Maryam, who guarded her chastity and was among the devoutly obedient.
Nobody inherits faith, and nobody is trapped by their circumstances.
✦ How it unfolds
- AYAH 6-8
Protect your family
Responsibility extended to the household, and the call to sincere repentance.
- AYAH 10-12
Four examples
Two wives of prophets who did not believe, and two women whose faith stood alone.