ٱلْمُجَادَلَة : ٢

  • ٱلَّذِينَ Those who
  • يُظَٰهِرُونَ pronounce zihar
  • مِنكُم among you
  • مِّن [from]
  • نِّسَآئِهِم (to) their wives
  • مَّا not
  • هُنَّ they
  • أُمَّهَٰتِهِمۡۖ (are) their mothers
  • إِنۡ Not
  • أُمَّهَٰتُهُمۡ (are) their mothers
  • إِلَّا except
  • ٱلَّٰٓـِٔي those who
  • وَلَدۡنَهُمۡۚ gave them birth
  • وَإِنَّهُمۡ And indeed they
  • لَيَقُولُونَ surely say
  • مُنكَرٗا an evil
  • مِّنَ [of]
  • ٱلۡقَوۡلِ [the] word
  • وَزُورٗاۚ and a lie
  • وَإِنَّ But indeed
  • ٱللَّهَ Allah
  • لَعَفُوٌّ (is) surely Oft-Pardoning
  • غَفُورٞ Oft-Forgiving
Those who pronounce ẓihār1 among you [to separate] from their wives - they are not [consequently] their mothers. Their mothers are none but those who gave birth to them. And indeed, they are saying an objectionable statement and a falsehood. But indeed, Allāh is Pardoning and Forgiving.
Footnotes
1 - The saying by a husband to his wife, "You are to me like the back of my mother," meaning unlawful to approach. This was a type of divorce practiced by the Arabs before the prophethood of Muḥammad (ﷺ).
Those of you who repudiate their wives by zihaar (yazzahharoona is actually yatazahharoona, in which the taa' has been assimilated with the zaa'; a variant reading has yazzaaharoona, and still another has yuzaahiroona, similar [in form] to yuqaatiloona; the same applies for the second instance [of this verb below]), they are not their mothers; their mothers are only those who (read allaa'ee, or without the [final long] yaa', allaa'i) gave birth to them, and indeed they, [in repudiating them] by zihaar, utter indecent words and a calumny, a lie. Yet assuredly God is Pardoning, Forgiving, to the one who repudiates by zihaar through an atonement [which he must offer].