065
The Message of the Quran
Muhammad Asad
AT-TALAQ (DIVORCE)
THE SIXTY-FIFTH SURAH
Total Verses: 12
Introduction
THE WHOLE of this surah (revealed
about the middle of the Medina period) is devoted to one particular aspect of
the problem of divorce, namely, to ordinances relating to the waiting-period
which divorced women must undergo before the marriage is finally dissolved and
they are allowed to remarry - thus amplifying and elucidating verses 228-233 of
Al-Baqarah.
IN THE NAME OF
GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE:
(1) O PROPHET!
When you 1 [intend to divorce women, divorce them with a view to the
waiting period appointed for them, 2 and
reckon the period [carefully], and be conscious of God, your Sustainer. Do not
expel them from their homes; 3 and neither shall they [be made to] leave 4 unless
they become openly guilty of immoral conduct. 5
These, then, are the bounds set by God - and he who transgresses the bounds set
by God does indeed sin against himself: [for, O man, although] thou knowest it not, after that [first breach] God may well
cause something new to come about. 6
(2) And so, when they are about to reach
the end of their waiting-term, either retain them in a fair manner or part with
them in a fair manner. And let two persons of [known] probity from among your
own community 7 witness [what you have decided]; and do yourselves bear
true witness before God: 8 thus are admonished all who believe in God and the Last
Day. And unto everyone who is conscious of God, He [always] grants a way out
[of unhappiness],
(3) and
provides for him in a manner beyond all expectation; 9 and
for everyone who places his trust in God He [alone] is enough. Verily, God
always attains to His purpose: [and] indeed, unto everything has God appointed its [term and] measure.
(4) Now as for such of your women as are
beyond, the age of monthly courses, as well as for such as do not have any
courses, 10 their waiting-period - if you have any doubt [about it] -
shall be three [calendar] months; and as for those who are with child, the end
of their waiting-term shall come when they deliver their burden. And for
everyone who is conscious of God, He makes it easy to obey His commandment:
11
(5) [for] all
this is God's commandment, which He has bestowed upon you from on high. And
unto everyone who is conscious of God will He pardon [some of] his bad deeds,
and will grant him a vast reward.
(6) [Hence,] let the women [who are
undergoing a waiting-period] live in the same manner as you live yourselves,
12
In accordance with your means; and do not harass them with a view to making
their lives a misery. And if they happen to be with child, spend freely on them
until they deliver their burden; and if they nurse your offspring [after the
divorce has become final], give them their [due] recompense; and take counsel
with one another in a fair manner [about the child's future]. And if both of
you find it difficult [that the mother should nurse the child], 13 let
another woman nurse it on behalf of him [who has begotten it]. 14
(7) [In all these respects,] let him who
has ample means spend in accordance with 15 his
amplitude; and let him whose means of subsistence are scanty spend in
accordance with what God has given him: God does not burden any human being
with more than He has given him - [and it may well be that] God will grant,
after hardship, ease.
(8) AND HOW MANY a community has turned
with disdain from the commandment of its Sustainer and His apostles! 16
-whereupon We callled them all to account with an
accounting severe, and caused them to suffer with a suffering unnameable:
(9) and thus
they had to taste the evil outcome of their own doing: 17
for, [in this world,] the end of their doings was ruin,
(10) [the
while] God has readied for them [yet more] suffering severe [in the life to
come] Hence, remain conscious of God, O you who are endowed with insight -
[you] who have attained to faith! God has indeed bestowed on you a reminder
from on high:
(11) [He has sent] an apostle who
conveys unto you God's clear messages, so that He might those who have attained
to faith and do righteous deeds out of the depths of darkness into the light.
And whoever believes in God and does what is right and just, him will He admit
into gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide beyond the count
of time: indeed, a most goodly provision will God have granted him!
(12) GOD is He who has created seven heavens, 18 and, like them, [the many aspects] of the earth. Through all of them flows down from on high, unceasingly, His [creative] will, 19
so that you might come to know that God has the power to will anything, and that God encompasses all things with His knowledge.1 The plural "you" indicates
that the whole community is thus addressed.
2 See 2:228 and the corresponding notes,
especially note 215. - Most of the great jurists hold the view that the
required three pronouncements of divorce, which make it final and
irrevocable (cf. first paragraph of 2:229), must be made singly, i.e., spaced
over the waiting-period of three months, so as to give the husband time to
reconsider his intention, and thus to prevent a hasty act which might be
subsequently regretted. This provision is in line with the well-authenticated
saying of the Prophet, "In the sight of God; the most hateful of all
things allowed (abghad al-halali)
is divorce" (Abu Da' ud,
on the authority of Abd Allah ibn
Umar). In other words, divorce is just barely
permissible, and must not be resorted to unless it is absolutely evident that
nothing can save the marriage from utter hopelessness.
3 I.e., during the waiting-period. As shown in verse 6 below,
during that period the husband is fully responsible for the maintenance of the
wife whom he is divorcing in accordance with the standard of living observed
during their married life.
4 E.g., by their husbands' failure to provide for their maintenance.
(This particular injunction does not imply a prohibition of a divorced
woman's leaving her home of her own free will.)
5 Implying that in such a case she may be
lawfully turned out of her marital home. Regarding the term fahishah
("immoral conduct"), see surah
4, note 14.
6 According to Ibn
Abbas (as quoted by Razi)
and several other authorities (see Ibn Kathir), this is an allusion to the possibility of
reconciliation and, hence, a resumption of marital relations before the divorce
becomes final (see surah 2, second part
of verse 228 and first paragraph of 229).
7 Lit., "from yourselves": i.e.
persons who are sufficiently acquainted with the circumstances of the case.
8 Sc., that the
relevant decision has not been made in a frivolous spirit.
9 Lit., "whence he does not expect".
It is to be noted that the relative pronoun man ("whoever" or
"everyone who") - although grammatically requiring the use of the
masculine gender in the verbs or pronouns to which it relates - applies to persons
of either sex, as is evidenced by innumerable passages in the Qur'an: hence, the present passage, too, including the
sentence that follows, must be understood as relating to the women as well as
to the men in question; and the same holds good of verses 5 and 11 below.
10 I.e., for any physiological reason whatever.
11 Lit.., "He grants ease out of his
condition" - i.e., makes his condition easy: the implication being that
God-consciousness makes it easy for the believer to submit gladly to whatever
God may decree.
12 Lit., "let them dwell wherever you
dwell" - i.e., tropically, "let them share fully your standard of
living".
13 E.g., for reasons of her health, or because she intends to
remarry, etc.
14 I.e., at the father's expense: see
2:233 and the corresponding notes 219 and 220.
16 This connects with, and stresses, the
fact that all the preceding injunctions are divine ordained.
19 Lit., "the command". The
verbal form yatanazzalu implies
recurrence and continuity its combination with the noun al-amr reflects the concept of God's unceasing creative
activity.