Living The Quran
From Issue: 487 [Read full issue]
Al-Mujadila (She Who Pleaded)
Chapter 58: Verses 1-2
God Hears and Responds
"God has heard the words of she who disputes with you regarding her
husband and made her complaint to God. God hears your conversation.
Verily God is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. Those of you who shun their
wives by zihar - they are not their mothers. Their mothers are only
those women who gave birth to them. Indeed they utter words that are
unjust and false; but God is Absolving of Sins, All-Forgiving."
It may have been anger that made Aws ibn Samit reject his wife Khawla bint Thalaba with the vulgar expression, "To me, you are like the backside of my mother." Whatever the reason, after so many years of marriage, these words reduced Khawla to the status of his mother's behind (completely devoid of sensual sensation). Moreover, according to Arab custom, there was no way to revoke the declaration of zihar. Henceforth, it was prohibited for Aws to touch Khawla, yet she was not free of the marital bond. Sympathetic family and friends had no power to override such norms and customs. Khawla's only chance was to appeal to a power higher than social custom and patriarchal authority. And so, Khawla complained to God.
Complaining to God is not difficult; the challenge is eliciting a satisfactory response. In what Marshall Hodgson termed the "Irano-Semitic" tradition, the expected response from God entailed not only spiritual comforting but also social transformation. At the individual level, God could send a sign: a kind stranger with food and comforting words, the sun breaking free of the rain clouds, a heavenly vision appearing in a dream. Transforming society, on the other hand, required a different kind of intervention. It is for this purpose that God sent prophets with authority to speak on His behalf, empowered to overturn the existing social order.
When Khawla first went to the Arabian prophet to complain of the injustice done to her, she was disapointed. Muhammad indicated that existing customs remained normative unless God revealed a new ruling, and the Prophet had received no revelation about this issue. Khawla did not give up hope, for she knew that this custom was unjust; she continued to complain to God, and waited near His Messenger, expecting him to receive a revelation. With the above revelation God confirmed Khawla's conviction that what had been done to her was unjust and was to be prohibited by law.
Source:
"The Story of the Qur'an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life" - Ingrid Mattson, pp. 1-2