Q: Please explain the meaning of zihaar and if this has anything to do with talaaq. It is stated in the Quran that if a man wants his wife back then he should fast for two months or feed sixty poor people.
A: Zihaar is when a person says to his wife that you are to me like the back of my mother, alluding to the fact that just as that area is haraam for him so is the wife haraam to him. If a person says these words then it will be impermissible for him to get back to his wife until he has not yet paid the kaffaarah. The kaffaarah is either freeing of a slave, feeding 60 people or keeping sixty fasts consecutively.
And Allah Ta’ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
Answered by:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee (Isipingo Beach)