Verse 11
The Prohibition • madinah
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ضَرَبَ ٱللَّهُ مَثَلًا لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ ٱمْرَأَتَ نُوحٍ وَٱمْرَأَتَ لُوطٍ ۖ كَانَتَا تَحْتَ عَبْدَيْنِ مِنْ عِبَادِنَا صَٰلِحَيْنِ فَخَانَتَاهُمَا فَلَمْ يُغْنِيَا عَنْهُمَا مِنَ ٱللَّهِ شَيْـًٔا وَقِيلَ ٱدْخُلَا ٱلنَّارَ مَعَ ٱلدَّٰخِلِينَ
The disbelievers are compared to the wives of Noah and Lot in order to show that the companionship of a righteous man, even a Prophet of God, does not benefit an evilly-inclined person who is bent upon rejecting truth. The wife of Pharaoh represents those believers, who though passionately desiring and praying to get rid of sin, cannot fully dissociate themselves from evil influences which are represented by Pharaoh, and having arrived at the stage of the "self-accusing soul" sometimes fail and falter. Mary, the mother of Jesus, represents those righteous servants of God who, having closed all avenues of sin and having made peace with God, are blessed with Divine inspiration; the pronoun hi in fihi standing for such fortunate believers. Or, the pronoun may stand for Farj which, literally meaning a cleft or fissure, signifies an opening through which sin can find access.