At-Tahrim, "The Prohibition," is the sixty-sixth surah — 12 verses revealed in Medina.1 It opens with a question to the Prophet ﷺ himself: "O Prophet, why do you prohibit [yourself from] what Allah has made lawful for you, seeking the approval of your wives?"
What it is about
'A'isha later explained the occasion: the Prophet ﷺ used to drink honey at the house of his wife Zaynab bint Jahsh, and she and Hafsah arranged to tell him it had left an unpleasant smell. He answered that he would never take it again and had sworn an oath to that effect.5 The surah releases him from the oath, reveals that a confidence he shared with one wife had been passed on, and addresses the two wives directly: "If you two [wives] repent to Allah, [it is best], for your hearts have deviated."2
From the household the surah turns to every believer: "protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones... repent to Allah with sincere repentance." On the Day of Judgment believers will pray, "Our Lord, perfect for us our light and forgive us."3
It closes with four women. The wives of Noah and Lot "were under two of Our righteous servants but betrayed them," and their husbands could not save them. Against them stand "the wife of Pharaoh, when she said, 'My Lord, build for me near You a house in Paradise and save me from Pharaoh and his deeds,'" and "Mary, the daughter of 'Imran, who guarded her chastity... and she believed in the words of her Lord and His scriptures and was of the devoutly obedient."4
Why it matters
At-Tahrim shows the Quran correcting the Prophet ﷺ openly on a matter of his own home life — a reminder that he did not make law by personal preference. Its closing portraits of women judged by their own faith, not their husbands', have made Pharaoh's wife and Mary enduring models of believing women, and its call to "sincere repentance" is one of the Quran's central teachings on turning back to God. To read At-Tahrim in Arabic with translations and recitation, open it on Quran.com.