📘 (O Prophet! Why bannest thou that which Allah hath made lawful for thee�) [66:1]. Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Tusi informed us> 'Ali ibn 'Umar ibn Mahdi> al-Husayn ibn Isma'il al-Mahamili> 'Abd Allah ibn Shabib> Ishaq ibn Muhammad> 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar> Abu'l-Nadr, the client of 'Umar ibn 'Abd Allah> 'Ali ibn 'Abbas> Ibn 'Abbas> 'Umar who said: �The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, entered the house of Hafsah along with the mother of his son, Mariyah. When Hafsah found him with her [in an intimate moment], she said: 'Why did you bring her in my house? You did this to me, to the exception of all your wives, only because I am too insignificant to you'. He said to her: 'Do not mention this to 'A'ishah; she is forbidden for me [i.e. Mariyah] if I ever touch her'. Hafsah said: 'How could she be forbidden for you when she is your slave girl?' He swore to her that he will not touch her and then said: 'Do not mention this incident to anyone'. But she went ahead and informed 'A'ishah. The Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace, decided not to go to his wives for a month. He stayed away from them twenty nine days when Allah, glorious and exalted is He, revealed (O Prophet! Why bannest thou that which Allah hath made lawful for thee, seeking to please thy wives?)�. Abu Ibrahim Isma'il ibn Ibrahim al-Wa'iz informed us> Bishr ibn Ahmad ibn Bishr> Ja'far ibn al-Hasan al-Firyabi> Minjab ibn al-Harith> 'Ali ibn Mushir> Hisham ibn 'Urwah> his father> 'A'ishah who said: �The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, used to like sweet and honey. It was also his habit to go to his wives after finishing the 'Asr prayer. In one occasion he went to Hafsah bint 'Umar and stayed with her more than he usually did. When I found out about this, I enquired about the reason and I was told that a woman from her clan gifted her with a pot of honey which she offered to the Prophet, Allah bless him and give him peace. I said to myself: by Allah I will spoil it for him. I said to Sawdah bint Zam'ah: 'When he comes to your apartment and draws closer to you, say: O Messenger of Allah, did you eat Maghafir?' When he says: 'Hafsah fed me some honey', say: 'The bees which produced it must have eaten the 'Urfut'.

📘 (If ye twain turn unto Allah repentant, (ye have cause to do so) for your hearts desired (the ban)�) [66:4]. Abu Mansur al-Mansuri informed us> Abu�l-Hasan al-Daraqutni> al-Husayn ibn Isma�il> �Abd Allah ibn Shabib> Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn �Abd al-�Aziz> his father> al-Zuhri> �Ubayd Allah ibn �Abd Allah> Ibn �Abbas who said: �Hafsah found the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, with Umm Ibrahim when it was �A�ishah�s turn. She said to him: �I will definitely inform her!� The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, said: �She is forbidden for me if I touch her again�. Hafsah went ahead and informed �A�ishah. Allah informed His Messenger of this and he let Hafsah know some of the things she said. She asked him: �Who informed you of this?� He said: �(The Knower, the Aware hath told me) [66:3]�. The Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and give him peace, stayed away from his wives for a month and then Allah, glorious and exalted is He, revealed: (If ye twain turn unto Allah repentant, (ye have cause to do so) for your hearts desired (the ban)�)�.

📘 O you who have faith, repent to God with true repentance. “O believers, familiars, and friends, all of you repent! Come back to My threshold! Turn to Me! Though you have done what comes from you, I will do what comes from Me! Nobody accepts the defective except here. Come back! No threshold forgives sins but here. Seek shelter in Me! Come from the unkindly to the Lovingly Kind! Come from the pain of despair to hope! I have no fear of forgiving sins, come back! I am not ashamed to accept the defective, return!” Read the equivalent of this verse in “Be penitent toward your Lord” [39:54]. The station of penitence is higher than the station of repentance. Penitence is the servant's return to his Lord with heart and aspiration, and repentance is the servant's return from disobedience to obedience. What is penitence? Coming from the valley of hypocrisy on the feet of truthfulness to the valley of tranquility, coming from the valley of innovation on the feet of surrender to the valley of the Sunnah, coming from the valley of dispersion on the feet of disentanglement to the valley of togetherness, coming from the valley of making claims on the feet of poverty to the valley of solitariness, coming from the valley of intelligence on the feet of indigence to the Real. What is repentance? An obeyed interceder, tender trustee, and generous deputy effaces the imprint of sin and at his intercession the Real pardons the sinful servant. He cleanses and makes pure the servant's ledger of disobedience and makes the repentant man equal to a man without sin. This is why MuṣṬafā said, “He who repents of sin is like him who has no sin.” He also said, “Surely God is happier at His servant's repentance than a thirsty man who comes upon a spring, a man who has lost his camel and finds it, and a barren woman who gives birth.” He is saying, “The Real is more quickly pleased by the repentance of the repenters than by any other act of obedience. Know that His approval of the repentance of the sinner is like the happiness of a thirsty man in the middle of a dry, waterless desert who suddenly comes across pure water. Or it is like that of a traveler who has lost his goods and mount in the middle of a perilous desert and then, after despairing, he suddenly comes across his mount and his goods.