For this reason, reviling an individual believer entails discretionary punishment proportionate to that person’s circumstances and elevated standing. Thus, the punishment of one who reviles the Companions is more severe, while the punishment of one who reviles scholars and religious people is greater than that of others.
⦗672⦘
(59–62) “O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the women of the believers to draw their outer garments over themselves. That is more likely to ensure that they are recognized and not harassed. Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. If the hypocrites, those with sickness in their hearts, and the rumor-mongers in Medina do not desist, We will surely rouse you against them; then they will remain your neighbors there for only a short while. Accursed, wherever they are found, they will be seized and killed utterly. Such is Allah’s established way with those who passed before, and you will never find any change in Allah’s established way.”
This verse is known as the Verse of Hijab. Allah instructed His Prophet to command women in general, beginning with his wives and daughters because the command applied even more emphatically to them, and because one who instructs [others] (1) should begin with his own family before anyone else. Allah Most High says: “O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire.”
He was to command them “to draw their outer garments over themselves.” These are garments worn over one’s clothes, such as a wrap, head covering, cloak, or the like. In other words, they are to cover their faces and chests with them.
Allah then stated the wisdom behind this: “That is more likely to ensure that they are recognized and not harassed.” This indicates that they may be harassed if they do not observe the hijab. If they do not, they might be presumed unchaste, prompting someone with sickness in his heart to approach and harass them. They might also be treated with contempt and mistaken for bondwomen, emboldening those who intend evil against them. Thus, observing the hijab puts an end to the designs of those who covet them.
“Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful”: He forgave you for what had previously occurred and showed you mercy by explaining the rulings to you and clarifying what is lawful and unlawful. This closes the door to evil on the women’s side.
As for those bent on evil, He threatened them by saying: “If the hypocrites and those with sickness in their hearts”—meaning the sickness of doubt or desire—“and the rumor-mongers in Medina,” meaning those who spread fear and alarm by speaking (2) of the enemy’s great numbers and strength and the Muslims’ weakness.
Allah did not specify what they must desist from so that the statement would encompass every evil their souls suggest, whisper, and urge them to commit. This includes casting aspersions on Islam and its adherents, spreading alarming rumors among the Muslims, undermining their strength, accosting believing women with evil and indecency, and other sins committed by people of this kind.
“We will surely rouse you against them,” meaning: We will command you to punish and fight them and will give you power over them. Once We do so, they will have no ability to withstand you, nor any strength or means of defense. Hence He said: “Then they will remain your neighbors there for only a short while”—that is, they will remain near you in Medina only briefly, for you will either kill or banish them.
This is evidence for banishing evildoers whose presence among the Muslims causes harm, for that is more effective in putting an end to evil and keeping it at bay. They will be “accursed; wherever (3) they are found, they will be seized and killed utterly.”
That is, they will be cast far away. Wherever they are found, they will have no security and will never be able to settle (4) anywhere, fearing that they may be killed, imprisoned, or punished.
“Such is Allah’s established way with those who passed before”: whoever persists in disobedience, brazenly causes harm, and refuses to desist will receive a severe punishment. “And you will never find any change in Allah’s established way”—that is, it will never be altered. Rather, His established way and customary practice continue to operate whenever the causes necessitating their consequences are present (5).