The Debate (Al-Mujaadalah)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
۞ God has indeed heard the words of the woman who pleads with you about her husband and lays her complaint before God: God hears what the two of you have to say. God is all hearing, all seeing. 1 Those of you who say, regarding their wives, 'Be as my mother's back,' they are not truly their mothers; their mothers are only those who gave them birth, and they are surely saying a dishonourable saying, and a falsehood. Yet surely God is All-pardoning, All-forgiving. 2 Those who put away their wives (by saying they are as their mothers) and afterward would go back on that which they have said, (the penalty) in that case (is) the freeing of a slave before they touch one another. Unto this ye are exhorted; and Allah is Informed of what ye do. 3 But whosoever finds not the means, then let him fast two successive months, before the two of them touch one another. And if any man is not able to, then let him feed sixty poor persons -- that, that you may believe in God and His Messenger. Those are God's bounds; and for the unbelievers there awaits yet a painful chastisement. 4 Those who oppose God will be disgraced, as those before them were. We have sent down very clear signs. For unbelievers there is a shameful punishment. 5 On the Day whereon Allah will raise them all together and declare unto them that which they have worked. Allah hath taken count thereof, whilst they forget it. And Allah is over everything a Witness. 6