Regarding His saying, the Most High: "For those who swear off their wives," meaning: those who swear an oath, "is a waiting period of four months," up to the end of the verse. In the Pre-Islamic era and at the beginning of Islam, a man would become angry with his wife and would swear by God not to approach her for such and such a time, leaving her neither as an unmarried woman nor as a woman with a husband. God wished to protect the believers from that by setting a limit for them; so He set for them four months. "But if they return," Al-Hasan explained: meaning by the return, the resumption of sexual intercourse, "then indeed, God is Forgiving and Merciful." [Verse 228]
قَوْله تَعَالَى: ﴿لِلَّذِينَ يُؤْلُونَ مِنْ نِسَائِهِم﴾ أَي: يحلفُونَ ﴿تَرَبُّصُ أَرْبَعَةِ أَشْهُرٍ﴾ الْآيَة. كَانُوا فِي الْجَاهِلِيَّة، وَفِي صدر من الإِسْلام يغْضب أحدهم على امْرَأَته، فَيحلف بِاللَّهِ لَا يقربهَا كَذَا وَكَذَا فيدعها لَا أيِّمًا وَلا ذاتَ بعل؛ فَأَرَادَ اللَّه أَن يعْصم الْمُؤمنِينَ عَنْ ذَلِكَ بِحَدّ يحده لَهُم؛ فحد لَهُم أَرْبَعَة أشهر. ﴿فَإِنْ فَاءُوا﴾ تَفْسِير الحَسَن: يَعْنِي بالفيء: الرُّجُوع إِلَى الْجِمَاع ﴿فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيم﴾ [آيَة ٢٢٨]
