Surah 24 Light - Al-Noor, 64 verses (Madina)
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
- A sura which We have sent down and which We have
ordained in it have We sent down Clear Signs, in order
that ye may receive admonition.
- The woman and the man guilty of adultery or
fornication,- flog each of them with a hundred stripes:
Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter
prescribed by God, if ye believe in God and the Last
Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their
punishment.
- Let no man guilty of adultery or fornication marry
and but a woman similarly guilty, or an Unbeliever: nor
let any but such a man or an Unbeliever marry such a
woman: to the Believers such a thing is forbidden.
- And those who launch a charge against chaste women,
and produce not four witnesses (to support their
allegations),- flog them with eighty stripes; and
reject their evidence ever after: for such men are
wicked transgressors;-
- Unless they repent thereafter and mend (their
conduct); for God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
- And for those who launch a charge against their
spouses, and have (in support) no evidence but their
own,- their solitary evidence (can be received) if they
bear witness four times (with an oath) by God that they
are solemnly telling the truth;
- And the fifth (oath) (should be) that they solemnly
invoke the curse of God on themselves if they tell a
lie.
- But it would avert the punishment from the wife, if
she bears witness four times (with an oath) By God,
that (her husband) is telling a lie;
- And the fifth (oath) should be that she solemnly
invokes the wrath of God on herself if (her accuser) is
telling the truth.
- If it were not for God's grace and mercy on you,
and that God is Oft-Returning, full of Wisdom,- (Ye
would be ruined indeed).
- Those who brought forward the lie are a body among
yourselves: think it not to be an evil to you; On the
contrary it is good for you: to every man among them
(will come the punishment) of the sin that he earned,
and to him who took on himself the lead among them,
will be a penalty grievous.
- Why did not the believers - men and women - when ye
heard of the affair,- put the best construction on it
in their own minds and say, "This (charge) is an
obvious lie" ?
- Why did they not bring four witnesses to prove it?
When they have not brought the witnesses, such men, in
the sight of God, (stand forth) themselves as liars!
- Were it not for the grace and mercy of God on you,
in this world and the Hereafter, a grievous penalty
would have seized you in that ye rushed glibly into
this affair.
- Behold, ye received it on your tongues, and said
out of your mouths things of which ye had no knowledge;
and ye thought it to be a light matter, while it was
most serious in the sight of God.
- And why did ye not, when ye heard it, say? - "It is
not right of us to speak of this: Glory to God! this is
a most serious slander!"
- God doth admonish you, that ye may never repeat
such (conduct), if ye are (true) Believers.
- And God makes the Signs plain to you: for God is
full of knowledge and wisdom.
- Those who love (to see) scandal published broadcast
among the Believers, will have a grievous Penalty in
this life and in the Hereafter: God knows, and ye know
not.
- Were it not for the grace and mercy of God on you,
and that God is full of kindness and mercy, (ye would
be ruined indeed).
- O ye who believe! follow not Satan's footsteps: if
any will follow the footsteps of Satan, he will (but)
command what is shameful and wrong: and were it not for
the grace and mercy of God on you, not one of you would
ever have been pure: but God doth purify whom He
pleases: and God is One Who hears and knows (all
things).
- Let not those among you who are endued with grace
and amplitude of means resolve by oath against helping
their kinsmen, those in want, and those who have left
their homes in God's cause: let them forgive and
overlook, do you not wish that God should forgive you?
For God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
- Those who slander chaste women, indiscreet but
believing, are cursed in this life and in the
Hereafter: for them is a grievous Penalty,-
- On the Day when their tongues, their hands, and
their feet will bear witness against them as to their
actions.
- On that Day God will pay them back (all) their just
dues, and they will realise that God is the (very)
Truth, that makes all things manifest.
- 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.
- O ye who believe! enter not houses other than your
own, until ye have asked permission and saluted those
in them: that is best for you, in order that ye may
heed (what is seemly).
- If ye find no one in the house, enter not until
permission is given to you: if ye are asked to go back,
go back: that makes for greater purity for yourselves:
and God knows well all that ye do.
- It is no fault on your part to enter houses not
used for living in, which serve some (other) use for
you: And God has knowledge of what ye reveal and what
ye conceal.
- Say to the believing men that they should lower
their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for
greater purity for them: And God is well acquainted
with all that they do.
- And say to the believing women that they should
lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they
should not display their beauty and ornaments except
what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should
draw their veils over their bosoms and not display
their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers,
their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands'
sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their
sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their
right hands possess, or male servants free of physical
needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame
of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in
order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And
O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards God, that
ye may attain Bliss.
- Marry those among you who are single, or the
virtuous ones among yourselves, male or female: if they
are in poverty, God will give them means out of His
grace: for God encompasseth all, and he knoweth all
things.
- Let those who find not the wherewithal for marriage
keep themselves chaste, until God gives them means out
of His grace. And if any of your slaves ask for a deed
in writing (to enable them to earn their freedom for a
certain sum), give them such a deed if ye know any good
in them: yea, give them something yourselves out of the
means which God has given to you. But force not your
maids to prostitution when they desire chastity, in
order that ye may make a gain in the goods of this
life. But if anyone compels them, yet, after such
compulsion, is God, Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful (to
them),
- We have already sent down to you verses making
things clear, an illustration from (the story of)
people who passed away before you, and an admonition
for those who fear (God).
- God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The
Parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and
within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass
as it were a brilliant star: Lit from a blessed Tree,
an Olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose
oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched
it: Light upon Light! God doth guide whom He will to
His Light: God doth set forth Parables for men: and God
doth know all things.
- (Lit is such a Light) in houses, which God hath
permitted to be raised to honour; for the celebration,
in them, of His name: In them is He glorified in the
mornings and in the evenings, (again and again),-
- By men whom neither traffic nor merchandise can
divert from the Remembrance of God, nor from regular
Prayer, nor from the practice of regular Charity: Their
(only) fear is for the Day when hearts and eyes will be
transformed (in a world wholly new),-
- That God may reward them according to the best of
their deeds, and add even more for them out of His
Grace: for God doth provide for those whom He will,
without measure.
- But the Unbelievers,- their deeds are like a mirage
in sandy deserts, which the man parched with thirst
mistakes for water; until when he comes up to it, he
finds it to be nothing: But he finds God (ever) with
him, and God will pay him his account: and God is swift
in taking account.
- Or (the Unbelievers' state) is like the depths of
darkness in a vast deep ocean, overwhelmed with billow
topped by billow, topped by (dark) clouds: depths of
darkness, one above another: if a man stretches out his
hands, he can hardly see it! for any to whom God giveth
not light, there is no light!
- Seest thou not that it is God Whose praises all
beings in the heavens and on earth do celebrate, and
the birds (of the air) with wings outspread? Each one
knows its own (mode of) prayer and praise. And God
knows well all that they do.
- Yea, to God belongs the dominion of the heavens and
the earth; and to God is the final goal (of all).
- Seest thou not that God makes the clouds move
gently, then joins them together, then makes them into
a heap? - then wilt thou see rain issue forth from
their midst. And He sends down from the sky mountain
masses (of clouds) wherein is hail: He strikes
therewith whom He pleases and He turns it away from
whom He pleases, the vivid flash of His lightning
well-nigh blinds the sight.
- It is God Who alternates the Night and the Day:
verily in these things is an instructive example for
those who have vision!
- And God has created every animal from water: of
them there are some that creep on their bellies; some
that walk on two legs; and some that walk on four. God
creates what He wills for verily God has power over all
things.
- We have indeed sent down signs that make things
manifest: and God guides whom He wills to a way that is
straight.
- They say, "We believe in God and in the apostle,
and we obey": but even after that, some of them turn
away: they are not (really) Believers.
- When they are summoned to God and His apostle, in
order that He may judge between them, behold some of
them decline (to come).
- But if the right is on their side, they come to him
with all submission.
- Is it that there is a disease in their hearts? or
do they doubt, or are they in fear, that God and His
Apostle will deal unjustly with them? Nay, it is they
themselves who do wrong.
- The answer of the Believers, when summoned to God
and His Apostle, in order that He may judge between
them, is no other than this: they say, "We hear and we
obey": it is such as these that will attain felicity.
- It is such as obey God and His Apostle, and fear
God and do right, that will win (in the end),
- They swear their strongest oaths by God that, if
only thou wouldst command them, they would leave (their
homes). Say: "Swear ye not; Obedience is (more)
reasonable; verily, God is well acquainted with all
that ye do."
- Say: "Obey God, and obey the Apostle: but if ye
turn away, he is only responsible for the duty placed
on him and ye for that placed on you. If ye obey him,
ye shall be on right guidance. The Apostle's duty is
only to preach the clear (Message).
- God has promised, to those among you who believe
and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety,
grant them in the land, inheritance (of power), as He
granted it to those before them; that He will establish
in authority their religion - the one which He has
chosen for them; and that He will change (their state),
after the fear in which they (lived), to one of
security and peace: 'They will worship Me (alone) and
not associate aught with Me. 'If any do reject Faith
after this, they are rebellious and wicked.
- So establish regular Prayer and give regular
Charity; and obey the Apostle; that ye may receive
mercy.
- Never think thou that the Unbelievers are going to
frustrate (God's Plan) on earth: their abode is the
Fire,- and it is indeed an evil refuge!
- O ye who believe! let those whom your right hands
possess, and the (children) among you who have not come
of age ask your permission (before they come to your
presence), on three occasions: before morning prayer;
the while ye doff your clothes for the noonday heat;
and after the late-night prayer: these are your three
times of undress: outside those times it is not wrong
for you or for them to move about attending to each
other: Thus does God make clear the Signs to you: for
God is full of knowledge and wisdom.
- But when the children among you come of age, let
them (also) ask for permission, as do those senior to
them (in age): Thus does God make clear His Signs to
you: for God is full of knowledge and wisdom.
- Such elderly women as are past the prospect of
marriage,- there is no blame on them if they lay aside
their (outer) garments, provided they make not a wanton
display of their beauty: but it is best for them to be
modest: and God is One Who sees and knows all things.
- It is no fault in the blind nor in one born lame,
nor in one afflicted with illness, nor in yourselves,
that ye should eat in your own houses, or those of your
fathers, or your mothers, or your brothers, or your
sisters, or your father's brothers or your father's
sisters, or your mother's brothers, or your mother's
sisters, or in houses of which the keys are in your
possession, or in the house of a sincere friend of
yours: there is no blame on you, whether ye eat in
company or separately. But if ye enter houses, salute
each other - a greeting of blessing and purity as from
God. Thus does God make clear the signs to you: that ye
may understand.
- Only those are believers, who believe in God and
His Apostle: when they are with him on a matter
requiring collective action, they do not depart until
they have asked for his leave; those who ask for thy
leave are those who believe in God and His Apostle; so
when they ask for thy leave, for some business of
theirs, give leave to those of them whom thou wilt, and
ask God for their forgiveness: for God is
Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
- Deem not the summons of the Apostle among
yourselves like the summons of one of you to another:
God doth know those of you who slip away under shelter
of some excuse: then let those beware who withstand the
Apostle's order, lest some trial befall them, or a
grievous penalty be inflicted on them.
- Be quite sure that to God doth belong whatever is
in the heavens and on earth. Well doth He know what ye
are intent upon: and one day they will be brought back
to Him, and He will tell them the truth of what they
did: for God doth know all things.
Quran
Surah 23 The Believers
Surah 24 Light
Surah 25 The Criterion