ٱلْأَحْزَاب : ٥٩

  • يَٰٓأَيُّهَا O Prophet
  • ٱلنَّبِيُّ O Prophet
  • قُل Say
  • لِّأَزۡوَٰجِكَ to your wives
  • وَبَنَاتِكَ and your daughters
  • وَنِسَآءِ and (the) women
  • ٱلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ (of) the believers
  • يُدۡنِينَ to bring down
  • عَلَيۡهِنَّ over themselves
  • مِن of
  • جَلَٰبِيبِهِنَّۚ their outer garments
  • ذَٰلِكَ That
  • أَدۡنَىٰٓ (is) more suitable
  • أَن that
  • يُعۡرَفۡنَ they should be known
  • فَلَا and not
  • يُؤۡذَيۡنَۗ harmed
  • وَكَانَ And is
  • ٱللَّهُ Allah
  • غَفُورٗا Oft-Forgiving
  • رَّحِيمٗا Most Merciful
O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments.1 That is more suitable that they will be known2 and not be abused. And ever is Allāh Forgiving and Merciful.3
Footnotes
1 The jilbāb, which is defined as a cloak covering the head and reaching to the ground, thereby covering the woman's entire body.
2 As chaste believing women.
3 Or "and Allāh was Forgiving and Merciful" of what occurred before this injunction or before knowledge of it.
O Prophet! Tell your wives and daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks closely over themselves (jalaabeeb is the plural of jilbaab, which is a wrap that covers a woman totally) - in other words, let them pull part of it [also] over their faces, leaving one eye [visible], when they need to leave [the house] for something. That makes it likelier that they will be known, to be free women, and not be molested, by being approached. In contrast, slavegirls did not use to cover their faces and so the disbelievers used to pester them. And God is Forgiving, of any occasion in the past when they may have neglected to cover themselves, Merciful, to them in His veiling them.