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yā-ʾayyuhā lladhīna ʾāmanū ʾidhā nakaḥtumu l-muʾmināti thumma ṭallaqtumūhunna min qabli ʾan tamassūhunna fa-mā lakum ʿalayhinna min ʿiddatin taʿtaddūnahā fa-mattiʿūhunna wa-sarriḥūhunna sarāḥan jamīlan
O you who have faith! When you marry faithful women and then divorce them before you touch them, there shall be no period for you to reckon. But provide for them and release them in a graceful manner.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-’Ahzab – Verse 49
49. “O you who have believed! When you marry believing women and then divorce them before you touch them, you have no period to reckon against them; so give them a present, and release them in a handsome manner.”
The objective meaning of the Arabic word /nikah/, here, is marriage and the purpose of /tamas/ (touch) is ‘to have sexual intercourse’, and the purpose of the Qur’anic phrase /sarahan jamila/ is a divorce without any enmity and roughness. The Arabic word /‘iddah/ is called to the term that women must wait, and do not marry another spouse, until its end after becoming divorced. The woman’s term in divorce is three menstrual cycles and becoming purified; and the term of the death of her husband is four month, and ten days.
In this verse Allah says:
Here Allah has stated an exception for the ordinance of the divorced woman’s term saying that if the divorce occurs before the first coition in marriage, keeping the term is not necessary. It is understood from this meaning that the ordinance of the term (period) has been stated before this verse. The application of the Qur’anic word /mu’minat/ (believing women) is not an evidence for saying that marriage with non-Muslim women is absolutely forbidden but it may refer to the precedence of them.
Therefore, it does not contrast with the narrations and the known pronouncements of jurisprudents which consider the temporary marriage with the women of the People of the Book permissible. However, it is understood from the Arabic word /lakum/ (you have) and also from the Qur’anic sentence: /ta‘taddunaha/ (to reckon against them) that woman’s keeping the term is counted a kind of right for man, and it must be so, because it is possible that, in fact, the woman is pregnant and marriage with another man without keeping the term causes that the situation of the child would not be distinguished and the man’s right in this regard might be disregarded.
Moreover, woman’s keeping term gives an opportunity to the man and woman both that if they have accepted the divorce under the effect of ordinary excitements, they can find a time to review and return, and this is a right for both man and woman. Then it refers to another ordinance from the ordinances concerning the women who have obtained their divorce before having sexual intercourse, which has also been mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah, and says:
No doubt, giving a suitable present to the woman is obligatory when there has not been appointed a dower for her, as Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 236 says:
Therefore, though the verse under discussion has an absolute meaning and covers both the instances in which dowry has been settled or not, yet with the frame of reference of the verse of Surah Al-Baqarah we limit the verse under discussion to the instance that there has not been settled a dowry, because in the case dowry is settled and the first coition in marriage is not performed, it is incumbent to pay half of the dowry21. As some Islamic commentators and jurists said, this is also probable that the ordinance of ‘paying a suitable present’ mentioned in the verse under discussion is general and it envelops even the instances in which the dowry is determined, but in these instances it is recommendable, and in the instance that the dowry is not defined it is obligatory.
Some verses of the Holy Qur’an, as well as some Islamic narrations, have referred to this meaning, too.22 Concerning the level and amount of this present, the Holy Qur’an, in Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 236 has stated:
Again, in this very verse, it says:
Thus, if there have been mentioned some instance in the Islamic narrations such as: house, servant, clothing, and the like, they are some extensions of this general meaning which varies in respect to the possibilities of husband and the situation of woman. The last ordinance in the verse under discussion is that you must release the divorced women in a fair manner and separate from them with a proper form. It says:
The Qur’anic phrase /sarahan jamila/ means: to leave them respectfully and affectionately, without any enmity, roughness, cruelty and disgrace. In short, as it is said in Surah Al-Baqarah, No.2, verse 229 either the wife must be maintained suitably in honour or she may be released kindly and respectably. Both the continuation of conjugality must be with the humane criterions, and separation. It is not so that whenever the husband decides to separate from his wife, he counts any kind of hatred, injustice, cruelty and taunt unto his wife permissible. This kind of manner is certainly non-Islamic.
Some other commentators have rendered the Qur’anic phrase: /sarahan jamila/ mentioned here into the sense of divorce according to the Islamic rule. In the narration mentioned in the commentary of ‘Ali-ibn-’Ibrahim’ and ‘Uyun-ul-’Akhbar, this meaning is emphasized, too. But it is certain that the meaning of /sarahan jamila/ is not limited only in this meaning, though one of its clear expansions is this very meaning’. Some other commentators have taken the phrase /sarahan jamila/ here with the sense of permission of going out of house and departure, since the woman has not a duty to keep ‘the term’, therefore she must be allowed to go wherever she wishes.
But, regarding to the fact that the phrase /sarahan jamila/, or the like, in other verses of the Qur’an concerns even about the women who must keep ‘the term’, the above mentioned meaning does not seen proper.
Footnotes