Transliteration:( Laa yahillu lakan nisaaa'u mim ba'du wa laaa an tabaddala bihinna min azwaajinw wa law ajabaka husnuhunna illaa maa malakat yameenukk; wa kaanal laahu 'alaa kulli shai'ir Raqeeba (section 6) )
"Thereafter other women are not allowed for you, and nor take other wives in exchange of them, though their beauty please you, but the slave girl, the possession of your hand. And Allah is watchful over everything."
(Kanzul Imaan Translation)
This verse indicates a prohibition on new marriages for the Prophet ﷺ after a certain point.
Once his nine noble wives chose to remain with him following the divine offer (as per earlier verses), he was no longer allowed to:
Marry additional women,
Or divorce and replace any wife with another, even if attracted by beauty.
Islamic scholars affirm this limit as part of the distinct rulings specific to the Prophet ﷺ.
Whereas the general Muslim limit is four wives, for the Prophet ﷺ it was fixed at nine, due to the unique status and spiritual wisdom tied to his marriages.
The Prophet ﷺ was also not permitted to substitute any of his current wives with others—even hypothetically.
This served to honor the women who had:
Chosen the path of Allah and His Messenger,
And embraced the sacrifices of Prophethood.
Although this restriction was later relaxed through Surah Al-Ahzaab: Verse 50, the Prophet ﷺ chose not to marry again afterward, out of personal humility and balance.
The only permissible addition was a bondswoman (slave girl) from among those whom Allah had lawfully granted him.
This did not count as a formal marriage, and thus did not fall under the same restriction.
An example is Hazrat Maria Qibtiyyah, who entered the Prophet’s ﷺ household in this manner.
She later bore him a son—Ibrahim—who tragically passed away in infancy.
This ruling also implies:
A non-Muslim woman (like a Jewess or Christian) was not to be taken as a formal wife, to preserve the sanctity of the title “Mothers of the Believers.”
But if one became a bondswoman, such restrictions would not apply.
The verse closes with a profound reminder:
Allah is fully aware of all actions, intentions, and social outcomes.
This divine oversight ensures that all matters tied to the Prophet’s ﷺ household—and his unique marital regulations—are under meticulous divine guidance and wisdom.
52. It is not lawful for you (to marry other) women after this, nor to change them for other wives even though their beauty attracts you, except those whom your right hand possesses. And Allah is Ever a Watcher over all things.
More than one of the scholars, such as Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, Ad-Dahhak, Qatadah, Ibn Zayd, Ibn Jarir and others stated that this Ayah was revealed as a reward to the wives of the Prophet expressing Allah’s pleasure with them for their excellent decision in choosing Allah and His Messenger and the Home of the Hereafter, when the Messenger of Allah , gave them the choice, as we have stated above. When they chose the Messenger of Allah their reward was that Allah restricted him to these wives, and forbade him to marry anyone else or to change them for other wives, even if he was attracted by their beauty — apart from slave-girls and prisoners of war, with regard to whom there was no sin on him. Then Allah lifted the restriction stated in this Ayah and permitted him to marry more women, but he did not marry anyone else, so that the favor of the Messenger of Allah towards them would be clear. Imam Ahmad recorded that `A’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “The Messenger of Allah did not die until Allah permitted (marriage to other) women for him.” It was also recorded by At-Tirmidhi and An-Nasa’i in their Sunans. On the other hand, others said that what was meant by the Ayah,
(It is not lawful for you (to marry other) women after this,) means, `after the description We have given of the women who are lawful for you, those to whom you have given their dowery, those whom your right hand possesses, and daughters of your paternal uncles and aunts, maternal uncles and aunts, and those who offer themselves to you in marriage — other kinds of women are not lawful for you.’ This view was narrated from Ubayy bin Ka`b, from Mujahid in one report which was transmitted from him, and others. At-Tirmidhi recorded that Ibn `Abbas said: “The Messenger of Allah was forbidden to marry certain kinds of women apart from believing women who had migrated with him, in the Ayah,
(It is not lawful for you (to marry other) women after this, nor to change them for other wives even though their beauty attracts you, except those whom your right hand possesses.) Allah has made lawful believing women, and believing women who offered themselves to the Prophet for marriage, and He made unlawful every woman who followed a religion other than Islam, as Allah says:
(And whosoever disbelieves in faith, then fruitless is his work) (5:5). Ibn Jarir, may Allah have mercy on him, stated that this Ayah is general in meaning and applies to all the kinds of women mentioned and the women to whom he was married, who were nine. What he said is good, and may be what many of the Salaf meant, for many of them narrated both views from him, and there is no contradiction between the two. And Allah knows best.
(nor to change them for other wives even though their beauty attracts you, ) He was forbidden to marry more women, even if he were to divorce any of them and wanted replace her with another, except for those whom his right hand possessed (slave women).
(33:52) Thereafter women will not be lawful for you, and it will not be lawful for you to take other wives in place of them, even though their beauty might please you,[93]unless they be those whom your right hand owns.[94] Allah is watchful over everything.
93. This has two meanings:
(1) “No other woman except those made lawful to you in (Surah Al-Ahzab, ayat 50) above, is any more lawful to you” and,
(2) “When your wives have become pleased and ready to stay with you through every kind of hardship and have rejected the world in preference to the Hereafter, and are satisfied that you may treat them as you please, it is no longer lawful for you that you should divorce any of them and take another wife instead.”
94. This verse explains why one is permitted to have conjugal relations with one’s slave-girls besides the wedded wives, and there is no restriction on their number. The same thing has also been stated in (Surah An-Nisa, Ayat 3), (Surah Al-Muminun, Ayat 6), and (Surah Al-Maarij, Ayat 30). In all these verses the slave-girls have been mentioned as a separate class from the wedded wives, and conjugal relations with them have been permitted. Moreover, (Surah An-Nisa, ayat 3) lays down the number of the wives as four, but neither has Allah fixed the number of the slave-girls in that verse nor made any allusion to their number in the other relevant verses. Here, of course, the Prophet (peace be upon him) is being addressed and told: “It is no more lawful for you to take other women in marriage, or divorce any of the present wives and take another wife in her stead; slavegirls, however, are lawful.” This shows that no restriction has been imposed in respect of the slave girls.
This, however, does not mean that the divine law has provided the rich an opportunity to purchase as many slave-girls as they like for their carnal indulgence. This is in fact how the self-seeking people have exploited and abused the law. The law had been made for the convenience of the people; it had not been made to be abused. One could, for instance, similarly abuse the law concerning marriage. The Shariah permits a man to marry up to four wives and also gives him the right to divorce his wife and take another one. This law had been made in view of man’s requirements and needs. Now, if a person, merely for the sake of sensual enjoyment, were to adopt the practice of keeping four wives for a time and then divorcing them to be replaced by another company of them, it would be abusing the provisions of the law, for which the person himself would be responsible and not the Shariah. Likewise the Shariah has allowed that the women who are captured in war and whose people do not exchange them for Muslim prisoners of war nor ransom them, may be kept as slave-girls, and gave the persons to whom they are assigned by the government the right to have conjugal relations with them so that they do not become a moral hazard for the society. Then, as it was not possible to determine the number of the prisoners of war, legally also it could not be determined how many slave girls a person could keep at a time. The sale of the slaves and slave-girls was also allowed for the reason that if a slave or a slave-girl could not do well with a master, he or she could be transferred to another person so that the same person’s permanent ownership did not become a cause of unending torture for both the master and the captive. The Shariah made all these laws keeping in view human conditions and requirements for the convenience of men. If these have been made a means of sexual enjoyment and luxury by the rich, it is they who are to blame for this and not the Shariah.
[1207]- See footnote to verse 4:1.
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