“And married women are also forbidden to you, except those whom your right hands possess. This is Allah’s decree upon you. Lawful to you beyond all that are other women, provided you seek them with your wealth in marriage, not in fornication. So, for whatever you enjoy of marriage with them, give them their due bridal gifts as an obligation. There is no blame upon you for whatever you mutually agree upon after the obligation. Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.” (24)

Allah’s words, “And married women, except those whom your right hands possess,” mean women who have husbands: it is not lawful for another man to marry them before they have separated from their husbands. This is the seventh category of women forbidden on account of a legal cause. (1)

Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri said: It was revealed concerning women who emigrated to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while they had husbands. Some Muslims would marry them, then their husbands arrived as emigrants. Allah therefore forbade the Muslims from marrying them, (2) then made an exception, saying: “except those whom your right hands possess”—meaning female captives who were taken captive while they had husbands in the lands of war. Their owners may have intercourse with them after istibrāʾ (ascertaining that the womb is free of pregnancy), because captivity annuls the marriage between a woman and her husband.

Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri said: On the day of Hunayn, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent an army to Awtas. They captured women who had husbands among the polytheists, and they were reluctant to have intercourse with them. Thereupon Allah Most High revealed this verse. (3)

Ata’ said: By His words, “except those whom your right hands possess,” He meant the case in which a man’s female slave is married to his male slave; he may remove her from him.