The Debate (Al-Mujaadalah)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
۞ Certainly has Allah heard the speech of the one who argues with you, [O Muhammad], concerning her husband and directs her complaint to Allah. And Allah hears your dialogue; indeed, Allah is Hearing and Seeing. 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 And those among you who have proclaimed their wives as their mothers and then wish to revert to the matter upon which they had uttered such an enormous word, must then free a slave before they touch one another; this is what you are advised; and Allah is Aware of your deeds. 3 So one who cannot find a slave, must then fast for two successive months before they touch one another; and one who cannot even fast, must then feed sixty needy ones; this is in order that you keep faith in Allah and His Noble Messenger; and these are the limits of Allah; and for the disbelievers is a painful punishment. 4 Lo! those who oppose Allah and His messenger will be abased even as those before them were abased; and We have sent down clear tokens, and for disbelievers is a shameful doom 5 upon the day when God shall raise them up all together, then He shall tell them what they did. 6