Surah An-Noor

An-Noor ("The Light") is the 24th surah of the Quran. A Medinan surah of 64 verses, it is 102nd in the traditional order of revelation, after Al-Hashr, and lies in the eighteenth juz'. It takes its name from the Verse of Light, "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth" (24:35), and sets out rules on chastity, family life and conduct within the community.

Name and context

It is the only surah that opens with the word "surah": "A surah which We have sent down and made obligatory" (24:1). Its central passage answers the slander (al-ifk) spread against 'A'isha, the Prophet's wife, on the return from the campaign against Banu al-Mustaliq, around 5 or 6 AH: after a month of rumours, verses 11–26 declared her innocence. Her own account is recorded in al-Bukhari and Muslim.

Main themes

• The penalty for fornication (24:2), and for accusing chaste women without four witnesses (24:4–5); the procedure of mutual imprecation (li'an) when a husband accuses his wife without witnesses (24:6–10).
• The slander affair: believers should have thought well of one another and demanded proof; "you thought it a light matter, while with God it was grave" (24:11–20). Verse 22 urges forgiveness: Abu Bakr had sworn to stop supporting his relative Mistah, who had spread the rumour, and resumed his help when it was revealed (al-Bukhari).
• Asking permission before entering others' homes (24:27–29); lowering the gaze for men and women, and women drawing their head coverings over their chests (24:30–31); encouraging marriage and allowing slaves to buy their freedom (24:32–33). Further rules on dress and on the Prophet's household are found in Al-Ahzab.
• The Verse of Light: God's light is like a niche holding a lamp in a glass shining like a brilliant star, lit from a blessed olive tree, "light upon light" (24:35). It shines in houses of worship, among men whom neither trade nor sale distracts from the remembrance of God (24:36–38), while the deeds of the disbelievers are like a mirage or darkness upon a deep sea (24:39–40).
• The obedience of the believers, who say "We hear and we obey" (24:51), set against the hypocrites, and God's promise to make the believers successors on the earth (24:55).
• Household etiquette: the three times of privacy (24:58–59), eating in relatives' homes (24:61) and not leaving the Prophet's gatherings without permission (24:62–63).

In the Sunnah

Besides 'A'isha's account of the slander, al-Bukhari records the cases that prompted the verses on li'an: Hilal ibn Umayya's accusation against his wife and the question of 'Uwaymir al-'Ajlani.