“It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, to have any choice in their affair. Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error.” (36)
His words, exalted is He: “It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, to have any choice in their affair.”
This verse was revealed concerning Zaynab bint Jahsh al-Asadiyyah, her brother Abdullah ibn Jahsh, and their mother Umaymah bint Abd al-Muttalib, the Prophet’s paternal aunt. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sought Zaynab’s hand in marriage for his freedman, Zayd ibn Harithah. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had purchased Zayd at Ukaz during the Age of Ignorance, then manumitted and adopted him.
When the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, proposed marriage to Zaynab, she initially agreed, thinking that he was proposing for himself. But when she learned that he was proposing her to Zayd, she refused and said, “I am your cousin, O Messenger of Allah, and I do not accept him for myself.” She was fair-complexioned and beautiful, and had a strong temperament. Her brother likewise disliked this. So Allah, exalted is He, revealed: “It is not for a believing man” (1)—meaning Abdullah ibn Jahsh—“or a believing woman”—meaning his sister Zaynab—“when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter,” that is, when Allah and His Messenger willed a matter, namely the marriage of Zaynab to Zayd, “to have any choice in their affair.”
The people of Kufa recited “to have” in the masculine form, because a phrase intervenes between the feminine noun and the verb; the others recited it in the feminine form, in agreement with “choice.” Choice means selecting.
The meaning is that they should not desire something other than what Allah has willed, or refuse what Allah and His Messenger have commanded. “Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error”: that is, he has committed an evident error. When they heard this, they accepted and submitted, and Zaynab placed her affair in the hands of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as did her brother. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then married her to Zayd. He consummated the marriage with her, and the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent her ten dinars, sixty dirhams, a head-covering, a tunic, a waist-wrapper, (2) an outer wrap, fifty mudd measures of food, and thirty sa measures of dates.