The Debate (Al-Mujaadalah)
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Most 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 to their wives, 'Be as my mother's back' indeed, they are not their mothers. Their mothers are only those who gave birth to them. Indeed they speak dishonorably and falsely. But Allah is the Pardoning, the Forgiving. 2 hence, as for those who would separate themselves from their wives by saying, "Thou art as unlawful to me as my mother", and thereafter would go back on what they have said, [their atonement] shall be the freeing of a human being from bondage before the couple may touch one another again: this you are [hereby] exhorted to do - for God is fully aware of all that you do. 3 and anyone who does not have the means must fast for two consecutive months before they touch each other, and who is not able to do that must feed sixty needy people. That is to affirm your faith in God and His messenger. These are the limits set by God. Those who deny the truth shall have a painful punishment. 4 Those who oppose Allah and His Messenger shall be frustrated just as those before them were frustrated. We have sent down proofs and clear verses, and for the unbelievers, there is a humiliating punishment. 5 On the Day when Allah will raise them up all together He will inform them of what they did. Allah has taken count of it, although they have forgotten. Allah is Witness to all things. 6