# Does the word 'women' in Surah al-Talaq rule out children?

*The passage addresses women, nisa, not girls; the childhood counter-argument; why a girl would not be thought pregnant*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t-x4lyns2ve/s/8/
- Date: 2019-07-25 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: A Reply to Abdullah Sameer's Allegation: The Quran Teaches Paedophilia | Mufti Abu Layth (24:43–27:19)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-X4Lyns2vE&t=1483s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t-x4lyns2ve/

**Topics:** Contested verses; Quranic Arabic; Atheists and polemicists

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Yes: the passage opens with nisa, women, a word never used of a six- or seven-year-old, just as boys are never called rijal, and the verses go on to envisage pregnancy, which nobody would expect of a child.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that the word nisa with which the passage opens is never used of a little girl, any more than rijal is used of a boy, and that the passage's provision for pregnancy shows it concerns adult women.

**Evidence, his words at 24:47:** “nobody refers you do not refer to a six-year-old girl as a woman or a seven-year-old girl or an eight-year-old girl” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-X4Lyns2vE&t=1487s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth argues that the opening words 'when you divorce women' use nisa, women, not jariyat or other words for girls, and not even 'your wives'; nobody calls a girl of six, seven or eight a woman. He anticipates the counter-argument that children in the past were robbed of their childhood and treated as small adults, so that the word could be used of them linguistically, and answers that this would apply equally to boys, yet nobody called boys rijal, men, just as nobody called girls nisa. He says the whole passage is about divorce and the iddah: whether the couple reconcile, how long to wait, what to do if cycles are irregular or the woman is pregnant. He asks why, if the verse spoke of a little girl, anyone would think her pregnant and make her wait in case she was, since the clause on pregnancy follows immediately.

## Sources and names cited

- Quran 65:1 (when you divorce women, divorce them for their iddah; do not expel them from their homes): https://quran.com/65/1
- Quran 65:4 (those who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not menstruated; the pregnant until they give birth): https://quran.com/65/4
- nisa (women)
- rijal (men)
- jariyah (girl)
- iddah (waiting period after divorce)

## Transcript (machine tier, 24:43–27:19)

[24:10] verses would have known of this challenge it's as though we go back to the very beginning of these verses that I've read to you just as we opened up this section yeah a you Hanabi in that the luck tom o prophet when you divorce and Missa women we mean not girls

[24:47] Missa not but not not Jerry yet not Joe worry not we're not talking a dude didn't even say as logical he didn't even say your wives he said women nobody refers you do not refer to a six-year-old girl as a woman or a seven-year-old girl or an eight-year-old girl and if they say and let's let's what could be a counter-argument that they might bring up they might say oh well you know in the past because young people they were doing you know that

[25:25] they were robbed of the in their kind of infant stages and childhood was kind of robbed from them therefore they were treated like many adults so because of that we're going to say linguistically we can use this then I ask you if that be the case if that be the case then them being robbed of their childhood was equal for boys and girls so show me where boys are core region where do you call ever show me where they called boys

[26:03] region men they don't because neither do they call Bernard Lisa they don't call girls women now here allah begins by saying is that the luck to Manisa when you divorce women and this whole the whole verses are simply speaking about the divorce and the ADA if you reconcile if you don't reconcile how long should they wait they should wait three months

[26:40] what if okay what if the dimensional cycle isn't so apparent what if you're not so sure what if they don't have regular cycles what if they're pregnant what should you do now tell me if it was if they trying to say this was a little girl why would you think that the little girl was pregnant anyway why would they think that they wouldn't think that a six-year-old was pregnant anyway so what would be the purpose of saying oh let her sit and either just in case go straight after it straight after II Allah says and what we'll have to laugh

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment T-X4Lyns2vE/s/8. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t-x4lyns2ve/s/8/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.