Surah Al-Mujadilah

Introduction

(It is pronounced with both a fathah and a kasrah on the dal, though the latter is the better-known form. It is also called Surah Qad Sami‘a, and in the codex of Ubayy (may Allah be pleased with him) it was named Az-Zihar.)

According to what has been narrated from Ibn Abbas and Ibn al-Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with them), it is a Medinan surah. Al-Kalbi and Ibn al-Sa'ib said: Except for His (Exalted is He) saying: "Do you not see that Allah knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth? There is no private conversation of three but He is the fourth of them."

From ‘Ata’, it is narrated that the first ten verses are Medinan and the remainder are Meccan. Al-Baydawi inverted this, stating that it contains twenty-one verses according to the latter, and twenty-two according to the others. In al-Taysir, it is stated to be twenty-four verses, which contradicts the established works on the enumeration of verses.

The reason for its relevance to the preceding surah is that the former concluded with the grace of Allah (Exalted is He), and this one begins with that which pertains to it. Some eminent scholars have said: Since the beginning of the previous surah mentioned His (Exalted is He) majestic attributes—among them the Manifest and the Hidden—and He (Glorified be He) said: "He knows what penetrates into the earth and what emerges from it and what descends from the heaven and what ascends therein; and He is with you wherever you are," He began this one by mentioning that He (Majestic and Exalted is He) heard the words of the woman who disputed, who complained to Him (Exalted is He).

This is why ‘A’isha (may Allah be pleased with her) said, as narrated by al-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, and al-Bukhari (in ta’liq form) when it was revealed: "Praise be to Allah, whose hearing encompasses all voices! The disputing woman came to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) speaking to him, and I was in the corner of the house, yet I could not hear what she was saying; then Allah (Exalted is He) revealed: 'Indeed, Allah has heard...'"

He (Glorified is He) subsequently mentioned: "Do you not see that Allah knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth? There is no private conversation of three but He is the fourth of them," to the end of the verse. This is a detailed explanation of the summary provided in His (Exalted is He) statement: "And He is with you wherever you are." Through this, one recognizes the wisdom in placing this surah as a separator between al-Hadid and al-Hashr, despite their affinity in beginning with [the glorification of Allah, i.e., sabbaha], along with other reasons that are not hidden from those qualified to discern them.

"God has indeed heard..."

"God has indeed heard" (with the articulation of the dal). Abu 'Amr, Hamzah, al-Kisa'i, and Ibn Muhaysin read it by assimilating it into the sin. Khalaf ibn Hisham al-Bazzar said: "I heard al-Kisa'i say: 'Whoever reads qad sami'a and makes the dal distinct, his tongue is that of a foreigner (A'jami), not an Arab.' Yet, one should pay no heed to this, for both modes are eloquent and mutawatir (transmitted by successive chains); indeed, the majority favor the distinct articulation.

"...the speech of the woman who disputes with you regarding her husband"

Meaning: who debates you regarding his affair and what has issued from him concerning her in terms of zihar (the pre-Islamic oath of repudiation). It is also read as tuhawiruka, with the meaning as previously stated; tuhawiruka means "she questions you."

"...and complains to God."

This is a conjunction to "disputes with you," and thus the sentence has no position in the grammatical syntax. Some have allowed it to be a hal (circumstantial accusative), meaning: "She disputes with you while complaining to God the Exalted." This, however, is far-fetched. Moreover, if it were so, a subject (mubtada') would have to be implied with it—i.e., wa hiya tashtaki (and she is complaining)—because in eloquent speech, the present tense verb does not follow the waw (conjunction) directly in such a state, so the subject is implied to render the clause nominal. Her complaint to Him, the Exalted and Majestic, is an expression of her grief, the sorrow and anguish she harbored, and her supplication to Him. It derives from al-shakwa, which originally denotes opening the shakwa—a small water skin in which water is placed—and revealing what is inside it; then it became metaphorically used for this act.

She is a female Companion from the Ansar. There is disagreement regarding her name and her father’s name: it is said she is Khawlah bint Tha’labah ibn Malik; others say she is the daughter of Khuwaylid, or the daughter of Hakim, or the daughter of al-Samit, or Khuwaylah (diminutive) bint Tha’labah, or the daughter of Malik ibn Tha’labah, or Jamilah bint al-Samit, and other opinions exist. The majority hold that she is Khawlah bint Tha’labah ibn Malik al-Khazrajiyyah. Most narrators agree that the husband in this incident was Aws ibn al-Samit, the brother of ‘Ubadah ibn al-Samit; some say it was Salamah ibn Hajar al-Ansari, but the truth is that this belongs to a different story.

The verse was revealed concerning Khawlah and her husband Aws. Her husband Aws was an elderly man of ill temperament. One day he entered upon her, and she spoke back to him regarding something, which angered him. He said: "You are to me like the back of my mother." In the Jahiliyyah, if a man said this to his wife, she became forbidden to him. This was the first instance of zihar in Islam. He regretted it immediately and called for her, but she refused, saying: "By the One in Whose hand is the soul of Khawlah, you shall not touch me, for I will not allow it, until God and His Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, decide our case."

She went to the Messenger of God and said: "O Messenger of God, Aws married me when I was young and desirable. But now that my age has advanced and I have borne him many children, he has made me like his mother and abandoned me to no one. If you can find a concession for me, O Messenger of God, that would revive me and him, then tell me." He, peace and blessings be upon him, replied: "By God, I have not been commanded anything regarding your case until now." In one narration: "I see nothing but that you have become forbidden to him." She said: "He did not mention divorce," and she debated the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, repeatedly. Then she said: "O God, I complain to You of the severity of my loneliness and the difficulty of separation from him." In another narration, she said: "I complain to God the Exalted of my destitution and the severity of my condition. I have young children; if I entrust them to him, they will be lost, and if I keep them, they will go hungry." She began raising her head to the heaven and saying: "O God, I complain to You! O God, send down [a revelation] upon the tongue of Your Prophet!" She did not cease until the Quran was revealed concerning her. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "O Khawlah, rejoice." She replied: "With goodness." He then recited to her: "God has indeed heard the speech of the woman..."

‘Umar, may God be pleased with him, would honor her when she entered upon him and say: "God the Exalted has heard her." Ibn Abi Hatim and al-Bayhaqi in Al-Asma' wa al-Sifat relate that he met her while he was walking with the people. She stopped him; he stood for her, drew near to her, and lent her his ear, placing his hand on her shoulders until she had finished her need and departed. A man said to him: "O Commander of the Faithful, you detained the men of Quraysh for this old woman?" He replied: "Woe to you, do you know who this is?" He said: "No." He said: "This is a woman whose complaint God the Exalted heard from above the seven heavens. This is Khawlah bint Tha’labah. By God, had she not departed until nightfall, I would not have departed until her need was met." In a narration by al-Bukhari in his Tarikh, she said to him: "Stop, O ‘Umar," so he stopped, and she spoke harshly to him. A man said: "O Commander of the Faithful, I have never seen the likes of this day." He, may God be pleased with him, said: "And what would prevent me from listening to her, when she is the one whom God the Exalted listened to, and concerning whom He revealed what He revealed?"

"God has indeed heard..." The hearing is a metaphor for acceptance and response by way of causality, or it is a metonymy for that. Qad is for verification or for anticipation. It is directed toward the relief of distress, not toward the hearing itself, because [the hearing] is a verified fact, or [it is directed toward] the hearing because it is a metaphor or metonymy for acceptance; the intention is the speaker's anticipation of that. Indeed, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was anticipating that God would reveal the ruling of the incident and relieve the complaining woman of her distress; the reports contain that which suggests this.

Hearing in His saying, “And God hears your (dual) dialogue,”—according to what is known of it as an attribute by which sounds are perceived—is distinct from the attribute of knowledge, or it refers back to the attribute of knowledge. Al-Tahawur (the dialogue) refers to repeated speech. It is said: "I spoke to him, and he did not respond to me with hiwar or huwayr or mahwara," meaning: he did not answer me with anything. The present tense form indicates the continuity of the hearing as the dialogue continued and was renewed. Placing it within the structure of address, in a way that emphasizes the subject, is an honoring of her from two aspects. The sentence is an isti'naf (incipit/resumption) that functions as a justification for what preceded it, for her persistence in the issue, her extremity in supplication to God the Exalted, and her debating the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, were all known to Him, the Exalted, as being among the motives for a response. It is said: It is a hal (circumstantial) like the previous sentence, though this is also far-fetched.

"...Indeed, God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing."

This is a justification for what preceded it through way of verification; meaning that He, the Exalted, hears all that can be heard and sees all that can be seen in the most perfect and complete manner. From the premise of this, He, Glory be to Him, hears their dialogue and sees what accompanies it of gestures, among which was her raising her head to the heaven and the other signs of supplication. The Majestic Name (Allah) is used in both places to cultivate awe, to justify the ruling through the description of divinity for which the Majestic Name is known, and to confirm the independence of the two clauses.