al-Muḥṣanāt is interpreted in three ways:
1. al-Muḥṣanāt is used in the sense of free women, as in the following verses:
Except for those your right hands possess, [all] other muḥṣanāt (i.e., free women) are forbidden to you. (al-Nisāʾ 4:24)
And whoever among you cannot [find] the means to marry muḥṣanāt (i.e., free women) among the believing women... (al-Nisāʾ 4:25)
If they commit a shameful act [zina], then [the punishment] for them is half of what is [prescribed] for muḥṣanāt (i.e., free women). (al-Nisāʾ 4:25)
2. al-Muḥṣanāt is used in the sense of chaste women, as in the following verses:
Muḥṣanāt (i.e., chaste women who avoid indecencies); not those who commit open fornication, nor those who take secret lovers... (al-Nisāʾ 4:25)
Muḥsinīn (i.e., those who guard their private parts from indecencies); not those who commit open fornication... (al-Māʾida 5:5)
Those who slander muḥṣanāt (i.e., chaste women who are far from indecency)... (al-Nūr 24:23)
And Mary, the daughter of ʿImrān, who guarded her chastity (i.e., who was chaste and far from indecency). (al-Taḥrīm 66:12)
3. Muḥṣanāt is used in the sense of Muslim women, as in the following verses:
Chaste women (i.e., those who submit – here referring to slave women)... If they commit a shameful act [zina]... (al-Nisāʾ 4:25)
Those who accuse muḥṣanāt (i.e., free Muslim women)... (al-Nūr 24:4)