The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 5) — Page 273
CHAPTER 65 AT-TALAQ (Revealed after Hijrah) Date of Revelation and Context The Surah derives its title from the subject matter of the opening verse. It was revealed at Medina, sometime in the 5th or 6th year of Hijrah. The immediate cause of its revelation seems to be the divorce pronounced by 'Abdullah bin 'Umar against his wife during her monthly course, a procedure which the Surah is intended to prohibit (Bukhārī). In the preceding Surah a note of warning was sounded against some of the wives and children of believers, as sometimes they tend to become an impediment in the way of men wishing to make monetary sacrifice in the cause of truth. This may possibly lead to estrangement between the husband and the wife and ultimately to divorce, or the divorce may result from incompatibility of dispositions or from some other cause. It was therefore necessary to lay down the correct procedure for divorce. This may be regarded as the immediate connection of this Surah with its predecessor. But there also runs a deeper connection in the subject matter of the Quran as a whole. It is characteristic of the style of the Quran that when any of its Sūrah deals with a particular subject in its opening verses, then in order to emphasize and impress the importance of that subject upon the mind of the reader, the Sūrah, briefly but pointedly reverts to the same subject in its closing verses. The same procedure has been adopted in the Quran as regards whole Sūrahs. Thus some of the social and political problems which have been dealt with in detail in the opening Medinite Sūrahs such as Al-Baqarah, Āl-e-‘Imrān, An-Nisā”, have again been briefly treated in the last ten Medinite Surahs. The subject of divorce with which this Surah briefly deals has already been dealt with in detail in Surah Al-Baqarah. Subject Matter The Surah opens with the procedure to be adopted when a man intends to divorce his wife, and with the treatment to be extended to her after the divorce has been pronounced and she is waiting for her ‘iddah (period of waiting) to expire. It is enjoined that during this period she should be treated well and provided with all the necessities, commensurate with the financial resources of the husband. It is significant that four times in the course of five brief verses of the Surah believers have been exhorted to observe fear of God in their dealings. This indicates that in the matter of divorce husbands are generally tempted to treat their divorced wives unjustly. Hence the injunction to observe fear of God. 3169