An-Nisa 23: Your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your aunts (from your father’s side), your aunts (from your mother’s side), the daughters of your brothers, the daughters of your sisters, your foster mothers who nursed you, your foster sisters, the mothers of your wives and your stepdaughters under your guardianship who are the daughters of your wives with whom you had been intimate with, are not permissible for you (to marry). But if you did not have intimacy (with the women you have married), it is permissible for you to marry their daughters. Marrying the wives of your own sons and marrying two sisters are also not permissible for you; except for what has already occurred. Allah is Oft-Forgiving (Ghafoor) and Most Merciful (Raheem).

The twenty-third verse, the twenty-third verse of Surah An-Nisa — what does it say now? Your mothers — that is, your father's wives — your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal aunts, your maternal aunts, brothers' daughters — that is, he becomes the maternal uncle. Sisters' daughters, or their paternal uncles, sisters' daughters, maternal uncles, your mothers who nursed you, that is, your milk sisters, your wives' mothers, of the wives with whom you have consummated, your stepdaughters who are in your homes are made haram for you, He says. Yes. Even if she is not in his home — 'in your homes' here means she enters your own family.

Yes, they are made haram for you. If you married them but have not yet consummated, that is, you married the girl's mother but did not consummate with them, and separated,

there is no blame on you in taking their daughters, He says.

Then she becomes an outsider. But if you marry her mother, she takes the place of your own daughter. Your own daughter. Your own daughter — just as Allah, though you did not ask Him for that form, my Lord gave her to you, (?) He gives her to you. A child. It does not matter whether she comes from your own loins. He entrusts them to you. If you are the elder, if you married their mother, you are obliged to take them under your protection. If you married them but have not yet consummated, there is no blame on you in taking their daughters. The wives of your sons from your own loins, and taking two sisters at once, are also made haram for you.

They too — the wives of our sons are our daughters too. They are like our own daughters. These are Allah's laws. Except what is past; Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful, He says. What is past is past. That is, according to the verse, We do not call anyone to account for a thing We did not make known. Since We created the human mind lacking, for the rulings a person deemed right by his own lights, for the deeds he committed, We will not call them to account, says Allah Almighty. But now I have made the situation known to you, He says, with verses. That is, 1400 years ago, 1430 years ago, from the Prophet onward, since these verses were not made known to those before him, what remains in the past is excepted, He says.

Now come, He says, turn back, come.

Allah Almighty has declared to us in His verse whom people may and may not marry. These are our Lord's commands.

These cases are declared in the verse. By marrying such relatives of ours, people wrong themselves. What is this wrong? This wrong — to the hereafter you will have gone carrying Allah's (?). That is, because you went against His command — His command, our Lord's command — because we went against it, we become wrongdoers against our own selves. Because we will have fallen into sin. Into sin. Yes.

In today's medicine and technology, of those who marry relatives, due to blood incompatibility, the children are born disabled. Is that so? It is. Children are born disabled. Because with the same genes an incompatibility arises. Either no arm, or no leg, or, how shall I put it, in the mind something goes off, or the body is not fully under his control. Disabilities arise this way. Therefore, since Islam is a religion of virtue, both — out of our closeness, respect and love for our elders and family members — it forbade marriage with them, leaving such people at a father's distance over their relatives, and also, by not allowing marriage with them, it did not let the children from them be born disabled.

How beautiful. It leaves this father over them as an elder. It teaches them love and mercy. It does not cause children to be born disabled — not to be born — it has not caused, has caused. That is, children who will not be born disabled. So, in this case, how beautifully Allah Almighty makes His laws known to people. His laws.

O Muslims! Marriage with these, with these, has been made haram for you, says Allah Almighty. One, your mothers.

That is, the wives of the child's own father.

Your fathers', your fathers, your grandmothers, and their mothers further up. Maternal grandmother, paternal grandmother. Two, your daughters, and of your sons and daughters, that is, your grandchildren and their children. Three, your sisters — full sisters, or half-sisters through the father or through the mother. Four, your paternal aunts — your fathers' and grandfathers' sisters. Five, your maternal aunt's, your maternal aunts — your mothers', your grandmothers', (?) sisters.

Six, your brothers' daughters — that is, the paternal uncle cannot marry her — and these girls' daughters and grandchildren.

Seven, your sisters' daughters and their daughters and grandchildren, and all nieces in general. These seven categories are people who, by lineage, are very close relatives to people. Seven categories. Eight, your milk mothers who nursed you, and their mothers, that is, milk mothers. Nine, your milk sisters and milk daughters, milk paternal aunts, milk maternal aunts, milk brothers — these, though distant, are haram to marry by virtue of milk. Ten, your wives' mothers and their mothers — marriage with them too is haram. Whether the wives have died or not, even if divorced from the marriage, their mothers are still, out of respect for the marriage, haram.

That is, my wife died, my wife's mother is alive — should I take her? May Allah protect us. These are haram. Eleven, born to the wife you married from another man — your stepdaughter who is with you is also haram for you.

Even if they are not with you. That is, Allah Almighty said 'with you' — those within your household, your relatives, even if outside, are of our household. If you married these women but no marital relation occurred, and through divorce or death you were not together with them, in this case there is no harm in taking these girls, the daughters. Because there was no marriage with their mothers. Twelve. The wives of our own sons are also haram for us. They are our children, our daughters. The wives of stepsons are excepted from this. The wives of stepsons are excepted from this. Because the stepson is not of his lineage.

And his wife has no connection with him either. Marrying two sisters at the same time is also haram. Now, this is the question Ender asked. We are answering it anyway. Taking two sisters at the same time is haram. But if one dies, there is no harm in your taking the other.

Shall I tell you?

Uthman Dhun-Nurayn — 'If I had a third daughter too, I would give her to him,' he says. Dhun-Nurayn means the possessor of two lights. He married two daughters of the Prophet. He married the first, she died; he married the second too, she died. 'If there had been a third too,' he says, 'I would have given her to him.' Yes. So the question of our son Ender has been answered this way too.

Keeping a girl and her paternal or maternal aunt, both together in marriage is also haram — a girl's maternal or paternal aunt. How beautiful. Sharia rulings. All of them plainly clear. But before the religion of Islam came and before the verses were declared to people, deeds done remain in the past. For these people are not called to account. No doubt, from now on, people should not be subjected to the same treatment. Surely Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. He is very pardoning and very forgiving. Allah is the One who encompasses the universe with His knowledge; how each thing will be, Allah, the Possessor of wisdom, knows; if we too follow the verses Allah Almighty has made known, we will see the truth and attain salvation.

Yes.