Allatheena yuthahiroona minkum min nisa-ihim ma hunna ommahatihim in ommahatuhum illa alla-ee (surah Mujadilah: 2)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(58:2) Those among you who divorce their wives by declaring them to be their mothers, *3 such are not their mothers; none are their mothers except those who gave birth to them. *4 Indeed what they say is highly contemptible and false. *5 Verily Allah is Most Pardoning, Most Forgiving. *6

Allazeena yuzaahiroona minkum min nisaaa`ihim maa hunnaa ummahaatihim in ummahaatuhum illal laaa`ee waladnahum; wa innaahum la yaqooloona munkaram minal qawli wa zooraa; wa innal laaha la`afuwwun ghafoor

*3) Among the Arabs it often so happened that during a family quarrel, the husband in the heat of the moment would say to his wife: Ant-i alayya ka-zahr-i ammi which literally means: "You are for me as the back of my mother." But its real meaning is: "To have sexual relations with you would be like having sexual relations with my mother. " Such words are still uttered by the foolish people, who, as the result of a family quarrel, declare the wife to be like their mother, or sister, or daughter, and make her unlawful for themselves like the prohibited women. This is called zihar. Zahr in Arabic is metaphorically used for riding and mounting. Thus, the begat of conveyance is called zahr, because man rides on its back. As this word was employed in order to make the wife unlawful the formula was termed 'zihar". In the pre-Islamic days this was looked upon as tantamount to the pronouncement of divorce, even of greater effect than that, for they took it to mean that the husband was not only severing his marital relations with his wife but was also declaring her to be unlawful for himself like his mother. On this very basis, the Arabs thought reunion could be possible after a divorce but it was impossible after zihar
*4) This is Allah's first decision concerning zihar It means that if a person shamelessly compares the wife to his mother, his this utterance does not make his wife his mother, nor is she endowed with the sanctity that the mother enjoys. The mother's being mother is an actual fact, for she has given birth to the man. On this very ground, she is eternally sacred and prohibited. Now, how will the woman who has not given him birth become his mother simply by a word of mouth, and how will sanctity and prohibition be established for her by reason, morality and law which, by virtue of this actual fact, is only reserved for the mother who gave birth? Thus, Allah by this condemnation abolished the custom of the pre-Islamic ignorance according to which the marriage contract between the husband pronouncing zihar and the wife stood dissolved and she became absolutely forbidden _for him like the mother
*5) That is, "'TO liken the wife to the mother is, in the first place, an absurd and shameful thing which no noble person should ever think of, not to speak of uttering it with the tongue. Secondly, it is also a falsehood, for if the one who says such a thing is giving the news that his wife has now become his mother for him, he is uttering falsehood, and if he is declaring that he has henceforth bestowed on his wife the sanctity of the mother, even then his claim is false, for God has not given him the authority that he may treat a woman as his wife as long as he likes and then start treating her as his mother as and when he likes. The lawgiver is Allah Almighty, not he, and Allah has included in the order of motherhood the grandmothers, both paternal and maternal, mother-in-law, fastermother and the wives of the Holy Prophet (upon whom be Allah's peace) along with the woman who gave birth. Nobody has the right to include of his own whim another woman in this order, not to speak of the woman who has been his wife. This gives the second legal injunction. To pronounce zihar is a grave sin and forbidden act, the violation of which deserves to be punished.
*6) That is, ' Such an utterance actually deserves to be punished much more severely, but it is Allah's kindness that He has, firstly, abolished the custom of ignorance and saved your family life from utter ruin, and secondly, has prescribed the lightest punishment for the culprits. And His supreme kindness is that the punishment too, is not any form of physical torture or imprisonment, but a few acts of worship and virtue, which arc meant to reform you and help spread good in your society." In this connection, one should also understand that the acts of worship that have been prescribed by Islam as expiations for certain crimes and sins are neither mere punishments that they.may be without the spirit of worship, nor mere acts of worship that they m. y entail no pain and suffering of the punishment. Hut both the aspects have been combined in them so that the culprit may experience pain as well as expiate his sin by means of perfoming a virtue and act of worship.