لَّيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌ أَن تَدْخُلُوا۟ بُيُوتًا غَيْرَ مَسْكُونَةٍ فِيهَا مَتَٰعٌ لَّكُمْ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تُبْدُونَ وَمَا تَكْتُمُونَ
Laysa ʿalaykum junāḥun an tadkhulū buyūtan ghayra maskūnatin fīhā matāʿun lakum, wa'llāhu yaʿlamu mā tubdūna wa mā taktumūn
"There is no fault in your entering houses that are not lived in, in which there is something of use to you. God knows what you make public and what you conceal."
The verse brings an exception to the prohibition laid down two verses before, and the exception has two conditions:
| Condition | Expression | What it conveys |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ghayra maskūna | Not lived in — no one's life is within it |
| 2 | fīhā matāʿun lakum | Something of yours is in it — there is a reason to enter |
And that the two conditions are required together is worth noting. The first alone is not enough: it is not said that every uninhabited house may be entered. The second condition asks for a reason.
Root: س-ك-ن. Its concrete sense is the stopping of motion, coming to rest. Sakana — it stopped, it grew still. Sakīna — tranquillity. Maskūn — dwelt in, inhabited. Sakīna and sukūn are from the same root.
And the choice of the word gives a definition: what makes a place a "house" is someone's coming to rest within it.
The verse's exception, that is, looks not at a building but at a life. Not every structure with walls is a protected space; what is protected is someone living there.
Root: ج-ن-ح. Its concrete sense is to lean, to incline to one side. Janāḥ — a wing (the limb that folds to the side of the body). Janaḥa — he inclined.
The picture in the root of the word is worth noting: junāḥ is a swerving aside from the straight road. Its first sense, that is, is an error of direction, not a weight.
| Verse | Clause | What is lifted |
|---|---|---|
| 29 | laysa ʿalaykum junāḥun an tadkhulū | Entering a house that is not lived in |
| 58 | laysa ʿalaykum wa lā ʿalayhim junāḥun baʿdahunna | Asking leave outside the three times |
| 60 | fa-laysa ʿalayhinna junāḥun | Elderly women's laying aside the outer garment |
| 61 | laysa ʿalaykum junāḥun an taʾkulū | Eating together or apart |
All four usages are the lifting of an obligation. And all four stand in the sūra's blocks of manners.
This is a characteristic of the sūra, and I record it as my own reading: in laying down rules of manners the sūra writes beside every rule the place where that rule does not apply. A rule is set, and then the rule's limit is set.
أَبْدَىٰ — root ب-د-و: to come out into the open, to appear. Bādī — appearing; badā — it came out. The root will return in the thirty-first verse: lā yubdīna zīnatahunn — "let them not display their adornment". The same verb, in the same form.
The block was speaking of a physical boundary: the door, the house, the entering. And the verse-ending names the thing behind the physical boundary: intention.
The verse says this: the form of what is done before the door is visible; the purpose behind that act is not. And the party that holds the measure knows them both.