Zihar or Dhihar () (; ''Ẓihār''): ; ；is a term used in

Islamic jurisprudence ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

, which literally connotes an admonition by Allah to the believers. During pre-Islamic Arabia, Dhihar, was a practice in which a man referred to his wife as his mother or by uttering that, “you are, to me, like my mother”. This constitutes a form of revocable

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganising of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the M ...

(although it is invalid). If a husband says these words to his wife, it is highly unlawful for him to have sexual intercourse with her unless he makes recompense by freeing a

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

fasting Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic sta ...

for two successive months, or feeding sixty poor people.

Background

Zihar was accepted as a declaration of

among pre-Islamic

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

and it is mentioned in the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

in reference to Khawla bint Tha'labah, who was divorced by this formula in the chapter 58, verses 1-4:

Legality

Zihar is illegal and considered an insult in the

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

. It implies that the man, declaring his wife akin to his mother, is guilty of the sin of forbidding the lawful things. It has been proscribed by law and the act does not ensue in divorce. Thus, penalties in the form of setting free a slave, fasting, or feeding the poor have been imposed for it.

References

Islamic jurisprudence Arabic words and phrases in Sharia Divorce in Islam {{Islam-stub