At-Tahrim · Madani · ayah 3 of 12

At-Tahrim 66:3

وَإِذْ أَسَرَّ ٱلنَّبِىُّ إِلَىٰ بَعْضِ أَزْوَٰجِهِۦ حَدِيثًا فَلَمَّا نَبَّأَتْ بِهِۦ وَأَظْهَرَهُ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ عَرَّفَ بَعْضَهُۥ وَأَعْرَضَ عَنۢ بَعْضٍ ۖ فَلَمَّا نَبَّأَهَا بِهِۦ قَالَتْ مَنْ أَنۢبَأَكَ هَـٰذَا ۖ قَالَ نَبَّأَنِىَ ٱلْعَلِيمُ ٱلْخَبِيرُ

“And [remember] when the Prophet confided to one of his wives a statement; and when she informed [another] of it and Allāh showed it to him, he made known part of it and ignored a part. And when he informed her about it, she said, "Who told you this?" He said, "I was informed by the Knowing, the Aware."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Even knowing the full truth, the Prophet ﷺ told her only part of it — and pointed to Allah, not to whoever had told him.

A reflection

The nobility of telling only part

A matter inside the Prophet's ﷺ own household had been confided to one of his wives, with a request that it go no further. It did not. He learned, through revelation, exactly what had happened and exactly who she had told. And yet when he raised it with her, the ayah records something precise: he made known part of it, and overlooked part.

He did not need to be selective. He had the complete picture. The restraint was a choice, and one early commentator summed it up in a single line that has outlived him: no noble person has ever demanded the full account. There is a kind of confrontation that exists only to prove how much you know, laying out every detail until the other person has nowhere left to stand. And there is another kind, that says only enough for the truth to be acknowledged, and leaves the rest unsaid out of simple decency.

A teacher who already knows a pupil has copied an entire essay word for word does not need to read every borrowed sentence aloud in front of him. Naming the one paragraph that gave it away is usually enough; it lets him own what happened without being made to watch his own exposure in full. The Prophet ﷺ, with far more reason to feel wronged than any teacher marking a plagiarised page, chose exactly this kind of mercy. Knowing everything and saying only what correction required was not a lesser response than full disclosure. It was the harder, finer one.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.