Islam Guidance

The Light (an-Nur) -24

Recitation by: Maher Al Meaqli Suras 24
24	An-Nur (Light)	Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.		11 MB	00:24:08

In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
1. This is a sura which We have revealed and ordained, and We have revealed therein clear signs so that you may take heed.
2. You shall scourge the fornicatress and fornicator a hundred lashes each, and let no pity for them cause you not to enforce God’s judgment, if you believe in God and the Last Day; let their torment be witnessed by a party of the believers.
3. A fornicator marries none but a fornicatress or an idolatress, and a fornicatress marries none but a fornicator or an idolater and the believers are forbidden from that.
4. You shall scourge those who accuse the women who protect their modesty, while failing to bring four eye-witnesses, fourscore lashes, and you shall never accept their testimony, and they are the wicked ones,
5. Save those who repent thereafter and amend themselves, for surely God is oft-Forgiving, all-Merciful.
6. Those who charge their wives, without having witnesses other than their own selves, shall testify by swearing four times by God that they tell the truth,
7. Their fifth oath is invoking God’s curse on the liars.
8. If she testifies by swearing four times by God that verily he is a liar, then she shall thus avert the punishment,
9. Her fifth oath is to invoke God’s curse on her own self if he (instead) is truthful.
10. Had it not been for God’s grace upon you and His mercy, (you would have perished), and God is oft-Returning, all-Wise.
11. Indeed, those who have brought forth slandering are a gang among you. Do not deem it evil to you; nay! It is good for you. To every man among them is the penalty of what sin he committed, and for that who had a greater share of it will be a grievous torment.
12. When the believing men and women heard of it, why did they not think well of their own selves and call it manifest slandering?
13. Why did they not bring four witnesses to testify? Since they did not bring any witnesses, they are in the sight of God liars.
14. Had it not been for God’s grace in this life and in the hereafter, a grievous chastisement would have seized you for getting involved in such slandering.
15. For you articulate it and say with your own tongues what you really do not know, surmising it a simple matter to do so, whereas it rests with God as a grievous one.
16. Why did you not say when you heard of it: “It does not befit us that we talk about this (matter); Glory be to You, Lord; this is a serious slander”?
17. God admonishes you not to ever delve in the like of it if you are believers.
18. God makes the signs manifest to you, and God is all-Knowing, all-Wise.
19. Verily those who scandalize the believers shall have a grievous chastisement in this life and the life hereafter, and God knows, while you do not.
20. Had it not been for God’s grace and mercy upon you, (you would have been chastised), and God is Compassionate, all-Merciful.
21. O you who believe! Do not follow into Satan’s steps, for whoever follows in Satan’s steps would enjoin what is shameful and wrong. Had it not been for God’s grace and mercy upon you, none of you would have been purified, but God purifies whomsoever He will, and God is all-Hearing, all-Knowing.
22. Let not those among you who are endowed with bounties swear against giving to their kin, to the poor, and to those who migrate for the cause of God, and they should pardon you and overlook. Do not you love that God would forgive you? God is oft-Forgiving, all-Merciful.
23. Verily, those who charge the believing women who safeguard their modesty and are unaware of it, shall be cursed in this life and the life hereafter, and for them shall be a grievous torment.
24. Their tongues and hands and feet will on that day bear witness against them, testifying to what they did.
25. On that day, God will mete out their just dues to them, and they will know that God is the Truth, the self-Evident.
26. Bad women are for bad men, and bad men are for bad women; good men are for good women, and the good ones are for the good things; these are free from what they allege; for them shall be forgiveness and an honourable sustenance.
27. O you who believe! Do not enter houses other than your own before becoming acquainted and greeting their inhabitants. This is best or you; haply you will remember.
28. But if you find none in them, then do not enter them till you are permitted; if it is said to you to go back, then you should go back, for this is purer for you, and God knows all what you do.
29. You are not to be blamed for entering uninhabited [ware]houses if your goods are inside them, and God knows what you do in the open and in secrecy.
30. Say to the believing men to cast their gaze down and guard their modesty; that is purer for them; verily God is all-Aware of what they do.
31. Tell the believing women to cast their gaze down and guard their modesty, and not to display their adornments save that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and that they must not display their adornment save to their husbands or fathers, or the fathers of their husbands, or their sons, or the sons of their husbands, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons (nephews), or their sisters’ sons, or their women, or those whom their right hands possess, or the male servants who are void of sexual stimulation, or the children who have not yet attained awareness of women’s nakedness, and let them not strike their feet to show what adornments they hide, and turn to God all of you, O believers, so that you may be successful.
32. Marry those among you who are single, and those who are righteous among your male and female slaves. If they are needy, then God, out of His benevolence, will free them from want, and God is all-Bounteous, all-Knowing.
33. Let those who find no means to marry be in continence until God, out of His grace, frees them from want. Grant those whom your right hand possesses, who seek to be emancipated, written contracts, should you ascertain their goodness, and give them of the wealth which God has bestowed upon you. Do not compel your slave girls to prostitution while knowing their desire to remain chaste, if you seek casual fruition in this world. Whoever compels them, then God is oft-Forgiving thereafter, all-Merciful.
34. Indeed We sent down to you manifest signs and (struck for you) the moral of those who passed away before you an admonition to the pious.
35. God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His Light is a niche in which there is a lamp; the lamp is in a glass-ware; the glass-ware is as a shining and bright star, lit from a blessed tree that is neither eastern nor western; its oil almost glows forth even while no fire touches it: light upon light; God guides to His Light whomsoever He pleases, and God sets forth parables for people; God is all-Aware of everything.
36. (The lamps is lit) in houses which God has permitted to be elevated, and His name be mentioned therein; His Glory is praised therein in the mornings and the eves,
37. By men whom neither trade nor sale distracts from remembering God, paying zakat, fearing the Day when hearts and eyes shall writhe in anguish,
38. So that God may reward them with the best of what they earned, and increase it for them out of His Grace. God provides sustenance to whomsoever He pleases without measure.
39. As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert: the thirsty one supposes it to be water until he comes to it and finds it naught, finding God with him; so He recompenses him in full; God is quick in reckoning.
40. Or like utter darkness of the deep sea: a wave above another covers it, and above the wave is the cloud; (layers of) darkness one over the other; when one takes his hand out, he is almost unable to see it; to whomsoever God gives no light, no light he shall ever have.
41. Have you not seen how God is glorified by all those in the heavens and the earth: the birds with their wings stretched out, each knows its own prayer and praise? And God knows all that they do.
42. God’s is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and to God is the ultimate return.
43. Do you not see that God gently drives the clouds, then joins them together, then piles them up, then you see rain coming forth from their midst? He sends down from heavens (clouds like) mountains laden with hail whereby He afflicts whom He pleases and He turns it away from whom He pleases; its lightning almost takes sight away.
44. God turns the day and the night over; verily there is a lesson in that for those endowed with insight.
45. God has created every animal of water; some walk upon the belly; some walk upon two feet; some walk upon four; God creates whatever He pleases; verily, God has power over all things.
46. We have, indeed, sent down manifest signs, and God guides whomsoever He pleases to the Right Path.
47. They say: “We believe in God and in the messenger, and we obey;” then a party of them turns back thereafter; these are not believers (at all).
48. When they are invited to God and His messenger to judge between them, lo, a faction of them turns aside.
49. But when right is on their side, they quickly come to him submissively.
50. Has disease afflicted their hearts? Have they some doubt? Or Do they fear that God and His messenger would deal unjustly with them? Nay! They are themselves the unjust ones.
51. The answer of the believers, when invited to God and His messenger to judge between them, is that they say: “We hear and we obey;” these it is that are the victorious.
52. Those who obey God and His messenger, fear God and safeguard (their souls), are certainly the winners.
53. They swear by God with the most solemn of their oaths that if you command them, they would certainly go forth. Say: “Do not swear but rather obey; verily God is well aware of whatever you do.”
54. Say: “Obey God and obey the Messenger,” and should they turn back, then he carries his burden and you carry yours; if you obey him, you will certainly be rightly guided, and a messenger’s duty is but the delivering of a manifest Message.
55. God has promised those of you who believe and do good deeds that He will certainly appoint them successors on earth, just as He appointed those before them, and that He shall certainly establish their religion (Islam) for them, and that He will certainly exchange thereafter their fear for security. They shall worship Me and associate none with Me, and whosoever disbelieves after this are surely the wicked ones.
56. Establish, therefore, prayer, pay zakat, and obey the Messenger, perchance you will be dealt with mercifully.
57. Do not ever suppose that those who disbelieve can frustrate (God’s plan) on earth; their abode is the Fire, and certainly it is an evil resort.
58. O you who believe! Let those whom your right hands possess, and those who have not reached puberty yet, ask your permission (to excuse their presence) thrice (a day): before the dawn prayers, when you lay your garments aside in (midday) heat, and after night prayers; these are three periods of privacy for you; thereafter, there is no restriction should you or they attend upon each other. Thus does God explain the signs for you, and God is all-Knowing, all-Wise.
59. When your children reach puberty, let them seek permission just as those (of age) before them did; thus does God clarify His signs; God is all-Knowing, all-Wise.
60. The women who are past child-bearing and do not wish to marry may put on their (fine) garments without displaying their ornaments; but if they restrain (even from this), it is better for them, and God is all-Hearing, all-Knowing.
61. There is no blame on the blind, the lame, the sick, nor is there any on your own selves should you eat at your own homes or those of your fathers’, mothers’, brothers’, sisters’, paternal uncles’, maternal aunts’, or of those whose keys you possess, or at your friends’. It is no sin should you eat together or separately, and when you enter houses, greet your people with a salutation in God’s name, blessed and goodly. Thus does God make His signs clear for you so that you may understand.
62. Verily the believers are those who believe in God and His Messenger, and when they are with him on an affair demanding a collective action, they do not disperse before they seek his permission; verily those who seek your permission are the ones who believe in God and His Messenger; so, when they seek your permission to attend to some affair of theirs, grant permission to whomsoever you please, and seek God’s forgiveness for them; verily, God is oft-Forgiving, all-Merciful.
63. Do not call upon the Messenger as you call upon one another; verily God knows those among you who steal away, screening themselves; so let those who go against his order be warned lest a trial should afflict them or a painful chastisement should upon them.
64. Verily God’s is whatsoever in the heavens and the earth. He knows your conditions, and on the Day when they are returned to Him, He will inform them of what they did; God is well Aware of everything.

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