Wa-ith asarra annabiyyu ila baAAdi azwajihi hadeethan falamma nabbaat bihi waathharahu Allahu (surah Tahrim: 3)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(66:3) The Prophet confided something to one of his wives and then she disclosed it (to another); so after Allah revealed to the Prophet (that she had disclosed that secret), he made a part of it known to her and passed over a part of it. And when he told her about this (i.e., that she had disclosed the secret entrusted to her), she asked: 'Who informed you of this?' He said: 'I was told of it by He Who is All-Knowing, All-Aware.' *6

Wa iz asarran nabiyyu ilaa ba`di azwaajihee hadeesan falammaa nabba at bihee wa azharahul laahu `alaihi `arrafa ba`dahoo wa a`rada `am ba`din falammaa nabba ahaa bihee qaalat man amba aka haaza qaala nabba aniyal `aleemul khabeer

*6) Different things have been reported in different traditions, saying that the Holy Prophet had told such and such a thing to one of his wivcs in confidence, which she disclosed to another wife. But for us, in the first place, it is not right to investigate it, for it is on the disclosure of a secret that AIIah is taking a wife to task it cannot therefore be right for us to enquire into it and try to uncover it. Secondly, in view of the object for which this verse wa: sent down, it is not at alI important to know what the secret was. Had it any connection with the object of the discourse, Allah would Himself have mentioned it The real object for which this incident has been related in the Qur'iin is to warn the Holy Prophet's wives and. through them, the wives of the responsible people among the Muslims not to be careless in the matter of guarding secrets. Had it been only a private and personal affair, as is generally the case between the husband and the wife in the world there was no need that AIIah should have directly informed the Holy Prophet of it through revelation, and then did not rest content only with giving the information, but should also have recorded it in the Holy Book which the whole world has to recite forever. The reason why it was given such importance was that this wifc was not the wifc of an ordinary husband but of that illustrious husband, whom AIIah had appointed to the office of the highest responsibility, who was locked in an incessant battle with the disbelievers, polytheists and hypocrites at aII times and under whose leadership a fierce conflict was going on for establishing Islam in place of paganism. In the house of such an illustrious man there could be countless things which if not kept secret but disclosed before time, could harm the great mission which he was performing. Therefore, when a lady of the house happened to show this weakness for the first time in that she disclosed a secret that had been told her in confidence, to another (a member of her own household), the weakness was immediately pointed out to her, not secretly but openly in the Qur'an, so as to impart training in the guarding of secrets not only to the wivcs of the Holy Prophet but also to the wives of aII responsible people of the Muslim community. In the verse the question whether the secret disclosed pertained to a matter of any consequence or not, and whether its disclosure could cause any Iran' to the mission or not, has been altogether ignored. What has been disapproved and pointed out in particular is that the secret was disclosed to another. The higher the position of responsibility a person holds the more dangerous would be the leakage of secrets from his house. No matter whether a thing is of any consequence or not, once a person becomes careless in the matter of guarding secrets, he may reveal important things as well as trivial matters.