Khawla’s Complaint (58:1)
Khawla bint Tha’laba’s husband Aws ibn al-Samit had said to her: “You are to me like my mother’s back” — the pre-Islamic formula of zihar, which declared the wife permanently forbidden while leaving her neither married nor divorced. She came to the Prophet in desperate advocacy for herself.
The Prophet said: “I have not received revelation about your matter — I can only see that you have become forbidden to him.” A’isha, present at the exchange, later narrated: “Blessed is the One whose hearing encompasses everything — I could barely hear part of Khawla’s words from the corner of the room, but Allah heard her from above seven heavens.”
Then the revelation came — not merely acknowledging her, but addressing the injustice at law: zihar was declared prohibited and its prior use required expiation: freeing a slave, or fasting sixty consecutive days, or feeding sixty poor people, before the couple could resume conjugal relations.
The Ethics of Sacred Gatherings (58:9-11)
The surah moves from the individual case to social ethics:
- Do not hold secret counsels of sin and transgression (58:9)
- When told to make room in gatherings, make room — Allah will make room for you (58:11)
- When told to rise, rise — Allah elevates those who believe and those given knowledge, by degrees (58:11)
“Allah raises those of you who believe and those who have been given knowledge, by degrees.” — this is the Quran’s explicit valuation of ilm: the person of knowledge has a higher rank in the divine ordering, all else being equal.
See also: Al Hujurat, Quran Sciences, Tafsir Overview, Sahaba, Al Nisa Surah, Sulook