The Debate (Al-Mujaadalah)
Allah - beginning with the name of - the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
۞ Allah has heard the words of her that reasons with you (Prophet Muhammad) concerning her husband and made her complaint to Allah. Allah has heard both of you discussing with one another. Indeed, Allah is the Hearer, the Seer. 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 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 And if any has not (the wherewithal), he should fast for two months consecutively before they touch each other. But if any is unable to do so, he should feed sixty indigent ones, this, that ye may show your faith in Allah and His Messenger. Those are limits (set by) Allah. For those who reject (Him), there is a grievous Penalty. 4 Indeed, those who oppose Allah and His Messenger are abased as those before them were abased. And We have certainly sent down verses of clear evidence. And for the disbelievers is a humiliating punishment. 5 The day when Allah will raise all of them together and inform them of their misdeeds; Allah has kept count of them, whereas they have forgotten them; and all things are present before Allah. 6