God has certainly heard the words of her who disputes with you her who consults you O Prophet concerning her husband who has repudiated her by zihār — he had said to her ‘You are to me as untouchable as the back of my mother’. She asked the Prophet s about this and he told her that she was thenceforth forbidden to him as was customary among them at the time of Jāhiliyya namely that repudiation by zihār results in permanent separation. She was Khawla bt. Tha‘laba and he was Aws b. al-Sāmit — and complains to God of her being alone and of her impoverishment while having young children whom if she were to leave with him they would go astray but whom if they remained with her would go hungry. And God hears your conversation your consulting. Assuredly God is Hearer Seer He is Knower.
