The Debate (Al-Mujaadalah)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Allah has indeed heard the speech of the woman who is arguing with you (O dear Prophet Mohammed – peace and blessings be upon him) concerning her husband, and is complaining to Allah; and Allah hears the conversation of you both; indeed Allah is All Hearing, All Knowing. 1 As for those of you who [henceforth] separate themselves from their wives by saying, "Thou art as unlawful to me as my mother", [let them bear in mind that] they can never be [as] their mothers: none are their mothers save those who gave them birth: and so, behold, they but utter a saying that runs counter to reason, and is [therefore] false. But, behold, God is indeed an absolver of sins, much-forgiving: 2 Those who put away their wives by equating them with their mothers, and then wish to go back on what they have said, must set free a slave before the couple may touch one another again. This is what you are exhorted to do. God is fully aware of what you 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 Verily those who oppose Allah and His Messenger shall be brought low even as those before them were brought low. Surely We have sent down Clear Signs; and a humiliating chastisement awaits the unbelievers; 5 upon the day when God shall raise them up all together, then He shall tell them what they did. 6