Surah At-Talaq, The Divorce

Surah 65 · 12 verses · revealed at Medina

At-Talaq sets out how a marriage is to be ended, and is sometimes called the shorter Surah An-Nisa for that reason.

It is precise where the law needs to be precise. It requires that divorce be pronounced at the proper time and that the waiting period be counted carefully. It instructs that the woman not be turned out of her home during that period and that she not leave it. It sets out what is owed to a woman who is pregnant and to one who is nursing, and it says that the two should consult together in a reasonable manner.

It also says twice, in different words, that whoever is conscious of God will be given a way out, and provision from where he did not expect. Those two lines are quoted constantly and almost always outside the context of divorce. The surah is one of the few places where a passage of family law is also, for most readers, a passage of consolation.

Its tone throughout is restraining rather than permitting. Each ruling is followed by a reminder that these are God's limits, and that whoever oversteps them has wronged himself.

It ends by telling people not to know whether God may bring about something new afterwards — a line commentators have read as leaving the door open for reconciliation even after the decision has been taken.

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