God also holdeth forth to those who believe the example of the wife of Pharaoh,4 when she said, "Lord, build me an house with thee in Paradise, and deliver me from Pharaoh and his doings; and deliver me from the wicked:"
And Mary, the daughter of Imran, who kept her maidenhood, and into whose womb5 we breathed of our spirit, and who believed in the words of her Lord and His Scriptures, and was one of the devout.
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1 The first verses of this Sura were revealed (Hej. 7.) on occasion of Muhammad's reviving affection for Mary, a Copt slave sent him by the governor of Egypt, from whom he had recently (verse 3) sworn to his wife Hafsa to separate entirely. Hafsa, who had been greatly incensed at their amour, of which Muhammad had himself informed her, communicated the matter in confidence to Ayesha, from whose altered manner, probably, the prophet found that his secret had been betrayed. To free Muhammad from his obligation to Hafsa was the object of this chapter.
2 Muhammad withheld the fact that Ayesha, as well as God, was his informant, but taxed Hafsa with not having kept his secret.
3 Supply God will pardon you.
4 Asia, a name, perhaps, corrupted from that of Pharaoh's daughter Bithiah. 1 Chron. iv.18.
5 See Sura xxi. 91. Lit. quae rimam suam tuita est, in quam (rimam) inflavimus Spiritus nostri partem. Thus Beidh.
SURA1 LX.-SHE WHO IS TRIED [CX.]
MEDINA.-13 Versus