Surah al-Mujadilah is a Medinan surah. (1)

In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

“Allah has certainly heard the statement of the woman who disputes with you concerning her husband and complains to Allah. Allah hears the conversation between you both. Indeed, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.” (1)

The verse, “Allah has certainly heard the statement of the woman who disputes with you concerning her husband,” was revealed concerning Khawlah bint Tha‘labah, who was married to Aws ibn al-Samit. She was physically attractive, while he suffered from bouts of mental disturbance. He desired her, but she refused him, so he said to her, “You are to me as the back of my mother.” He then regretted what he had said. Zihar—the declaration that one’s wife is like one’s mother—and ila’, an oath of abstinence, were forms of divorce among the people of the pre-Islamic era.

He said to her, “I think that you have become unlawful to me.” She replied, “By Allah, that is not a divorce.” She then came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, while Aishah, may Allah be pleased with her, was washing one side of his head. She said, “O Messenger of Allah, my husband, Aws ibn al-Samit, married me when I was young, prosperous, and had wealth and family. Then, after he had consumed my wealth, exhausted my youth, my family had dispersed, and I had grown old, he pronounced zihar upon me. Now he regrets it. Is there anything that can reunite him and me, and bring me relief?”

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “You have become unlawful to him.” She said, “O Messenger of Allah, by Him who sent down the Book to you, he did not mention divorce. Moreover, he is the father of my child and the dearest of people to me.” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “You have become unlawful to him.”

She said, “I complain to Allah of my poverty and my loneliness. I have been with him for a long time and borne him children.” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “I can only see that you have become unlawful to him, and I have not been commanded anything concerning your case.”

She continued to plead her case before the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him. Whenever he said to her, “You have become unlawful to him,” she cried out and said, “I complain to Allah of my poverty and the severity of my situation. I have small children: if I leave them with him, they will be neglected, and if I keep them with me, they will go hungry.” She kept raising her head toward the sky and saying, “O Allah, I complain to You. O Allah, send down revelation upon the tongue of Your Prophet.” This was the first case of zihar in Islam.