who said:

I asked Sa‘īd ibn Jubayr, “Which is graver: adultery or accusing a chaste woman of unchastity?”

He replied, “No; rather, adultery.”

I said, “Yet Allah Most High says: ‘Indeed, those who accuse chaste, unsuspecting, believing women are cursed in this world and the Hereafter.’”

He replied, “This applied specifically to ‘Ā’ishah.”

Ahmad also narrated through his chain of transmission that Abū al-Jawzā’ said concerning this verse—“Indeed, those who accuse chaste, unsuspecting, believing women are cursed in this world and the Hereafter”—“This verse applies specifically to the Mothers of the Believers.”

Al-Ashajj narrated through his chain of transmission that al-Dahhāk said concerning this verse, “They are the wives of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

Ma‘mar narrated from al-Kalbī: “This verse refers only to the wives of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. As for anyone who accuses a Muslim woman of unchastity, he is a transgressor, as Allah Most High has said, unless he repents.”

The reasoning behind this is that merely accusing someone of unchastity does not warrant Allah’s curse in this world and the Hereafter. The definite article in His words, “chaste, unsuspecting, believing women,” would therefore identify particular women already in view. Those in view here are the wives of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, since the passage concerns the incident of the slander and those who maligned the Mother of the Believers, ‘Ā’ishah. Alternatively, the general wording is restricted to the occasion that prompted it, on the strength of evidence requiring such a restriction.

This view is supported by the fact that Allah, glorified is He, attached this threat to accusing chaste, unsuspecting, believing women of unchastity, whereas He said at the beginning of the surah:

“Those who accuse chaste women and then fail to produce four witnesses—flog them with eighty lashes.”

And so the verse continues. Thus, He made the prescribed punishment, the rejection of testimony, and the designation as a transgressor consequences of merely accusing chaste women of unchastity. It must therefore be the case that