Chapter on Zihar (Declaring One's Wife Unlawful Like a Mother)

Al-Hasan ibn Mahbub narrated from Ali ibn Ri'ab, from Zurara, who said: I asked Abu Ja'far Imam Muhammad ibn Ali Al-Baqir عليه السلام about ẓihar (a form of divorce by comparison). Imam عليه السلام said: "Ẓihar applies only when a man likens his wife to someone who is permanently unlawful for him, such as his mother, sister, paternal aunt, or maternal aunt. Ẓihar does not occur through an oath." I asked: "How does it occur?" Imam عليه السلام replied: "A man says to his wife, while she is in a state of purity and without having had intercourse with her, 'You are to me as unlawful as the back of my mother or my sister,' and he intends by this statement to make ẓihar."