Chapter: The Rulings of ẓihār

Here, ẓihār refers to a man who, wishing to withhold marital intimacy from his wife, says to her, “You are to me like the back of my mother,” or “…my sister,” or like any woman who is permanently unlawful to him through blood, nursing, or marital kinship. Whenever a husband likens his wife—wholly or in part—to a woman who is forbidden to him, he has committed ẓihār.

The ruling: it is prohibited, for the Almighty says, “Those among you who pronounce ẓihār upon their wives— they are not their mothers. None are their mothers except those who gave them birth. Indeed, they utter an odious and false statement” (Q 58:2). That is, they speak a vile, baseless utterance unknown to the Sacred Law—sheer falsehood and pure sin—because the man performing ẓihār makes unlawful for himself what Allah has not made unlawful and treats his wife as though she were his mother, when she is not.

Before Islam, ẓihār counted as a form of divorce. When Islam came, it abolished that ruling and regarded it as an oath requiring expiation. Consequently, it is forbidden for either party—the husband who pronounced ẓihār or the wife against whom it was pronounced—to enjoy any sexual contact, whether intercourse or its preliminaries, until the husband expiates for his ẓihār, as indicated by the words of the Most High: “Those who pronounce ẓihār upon their wives and then retract what they have said—then a slave must be freed before the two touch one another” (Q 58:3) and the verses that follow. The Prophet ﷺ likewise said to a man who had performed ẓihār, “Do not—”