(22) “Do not marry women whom your fathers married, except what has already occurred. Indeed, it was a shameful deed, abhorrent, and an evil way.”

That is: Do not marry any woman whom your fathers married—meaning one’s father or any paternal ancestor, however remote. “Indeed, it was a shameful deed”—that is, a vile act whose repugnance is exceedingly grave—“and abhorrent” to Allah and to people. Indeed, because of it, a son comes to despise his father and a father his son, despite the command to honor one’s father.

“And an evil way”—that is, how wretched a path it is for anyone who follows it, for this was among the customs of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, from which Islam came to preserve people and declare itself free.