Al-Mujadila · Madani · ayah 3 of 22

Al-Mujadila 58:3

وَٱلَّذِينَ يُظَـٰهِرُونَ مِن نِّسَآئِهِمْ ثُمَّ يَعُودُونَ لِمَا قَالُوا۟ فَتَحْرِيرُ رَقَبَةٍ مِّن قَبْلِ أَن يَتَمَآسَّا ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ تُوعَظُونَ بِهِۦ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ خَبِيرٌ

“And those who pronounce ẓihār from their wives and then [wish to] go back on what they said - then [there must be] the freeing of a slave before they touch one another. That is what you are admonished thereby; and Allāh is Aware of what you do.”

Saheeh International

Essence

A word that tried to lower one person's standing is answered by a costly act that raises another person's standing.

A reflection

Lowered by a word, answered by a lifting

Weigh what the original offence actually did. One sentence, costing a man nothing to say, tried to lower a free woman's standing toward something less than a full, equal spouse. The remedy Allah names first mirrors that shape exactly, only inverted: before anything else, before resuming the marriage, free someone from captivity. A word that pushed one person's standing down is met with a costly act that pulls someone else's standing all the way up.

This is not an arbitrary penalty chosen at random from a list of hard things. It answers the specific wrong in its own terms. The husband spoke as though a person's status could be redefined by a careless sentence. The atonement insists, in action rather than words, that a person's status can indeed change, but only through something that actually costs the one doing it, and only in the direction of greater dignity, never less.

This logic is worth carrying beyond the one custom. When a careless word has cut someone down, the honest repair is rarely another word, however well-chosen. It is usually some cost willingly paid that visibly raises the person, or someone else, back up. An apology that costs nothing answers a wound that cost everything. The ayah does not let that imbalance stand.

The details of exactly how this expiation is carried out, who qualifies, what substitutes exist, are a matter for scholars. What belongs here is the shape of the justice itself: a wrong that lowered someone is answered by a remedy that lifts someone, and nothing less will do.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.