“And whoever among you is devoutly obedient to Allah and His Messenger and does righteous deeds, We shall give her her reward twice over, and We have prepared for her a generous provision. O wives of the Prophet, you are not like any other women, if you are mindful of Allah. So do not be soft in speech, lest one in whose heart is a disease should be moved to desire; rather, speak in an appropriate manner.” (31–32)

“And whoever is devoutly obedient”—that is, obedient—“among you to Allah and His Messenger.” Ya'qub recited, “whichever of you commits” and “is devoutly obedient,” using the feminine form in both cases. The majority recited them with the masculine form, because man (“whoever”) is an expression that stands in place of a noun and may refer to the singular, plural, masculine, or feminine.

“And does righteous deeds, We shall give her her reward twice over”—that is, twice the reward of another woman. Muqatil said: For every good deed, she will receive twenty good deeds.

Hamzah and al-Kisa'i recited, “does” and “We shall give her,” with the masculine form in both, in coordination with “whoever commits” and “is devoutly obedient.” The others recited them with the feminine form. “And We have prepared for her a generous provision”: a fine provision, meaning Paradise.

“O wives of the Prophet, you are not like any other women.” Ibn Abbas said: This means that your rank before Me is not like that of other righteous women. You are more honored by Me, and your reward with Me is greater. He did not say “like one woman,” because ahad (“anyone”) is a general term applicable to one, two, or many, masculine or feminine. Allah Most High says: “We make no distinction between any of His messengers.” (al-Baqarah 2:285) And He says: “Then none of you could withhold it from Him.” (al-Haqqah 69:47)

“If you are mindful of Allah”—by obeying Him—“then do not be soft in speech”: do not speak gently to men or make your speech tender. “Lest one in whose heart is a disease should be moved to desire”—that is, immorality and lust; and it was also said: hypocrisy. The meaning is: Do not speak in a manner by which a hypocrite or immoral man may find an opening to desire you.

A woman is encouraged to be firm in her manner of speech when addressing men who are not her unmarriageable kin, so as to cut off such aspirations.

“Rather, speak in an appropriate manner”: speech consonant with religion and Islam, spoken plainly and clearly, without softness.