The Clans
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[33:51]
[know that] thou mayest put off for a time whichever of them thou pleasest, and mayest take unto thee whichever thou pleasest; and [that,] if thou seek out any from whom thou hast kept away [for a time], thou wilt incur no sin [thereby]: this will make it more likely that their eyes are gladdened [whenever they see thee], and that they do not grieve [whenever they are overlooked], and that all of them may find contentment in whatever thou hast to give them: for God [alone] knows what is in your hearts – and God is indeed all-knowing, forbearing.

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* v.51 : Thus, the Prophet was told that he need not observe a strict “rotation” in the conjugal attentions due to his wives, although he himself, impelled by an inborn sense of fairness, always endeavoured to give them a feeling of absolute equality.
* I.e., by the inner certainty that whenever he turned to any of them, he did so on impulse, out of genuine affection, and not out of a sense of marital “obligation.
” * According to a hadīth on the authority of ‘ā’ishah, recorded in the Musnad of Ibn Hanbal, the Prophet “used to divide his attentions equitably among his wives, and then would pray: ‘O God! I am doing whatever is in my power: do not, then, blame me for [failing in] something which is in Thy power [alone], and not in mine!’ – thus alluding to his heart, and to loving some [of his wives] more than others.”