Before the establishment of Muḥammadanism, z̤ihār stood as a divorce, but Muḥammad changed it to a temporary prohibition, for which expiation must be performed, viz. either freeing a slave, or two months’ fast, or feeding sixty persons. Qurʾān, Sūratu ʾl-Mujādilah [(lviii.), 1–5]:—
“God hath heard the words of her who pleaded with thee against her husband, and made her plaint to God; and God hath heard your mutual intercourse: for God Heareth! Beholdeth.
“As to those of you who put away their wives by saying, “Be thou to me as my mother’s back”—their mothers they are not; they only are their mothers who gave them birth! they certainly say a blameworthy thing and an untruth:
“But truly, God is Forgiving, Indulgent.
“And those who thus put away their wives, and afterwards would recall their words, must free a captive before they can come together again. To this are ye warned to conform: and God is aware of what ye do.
“And he who findeth not a captive to set free, shall fast two months in succession before they two come together. And he who shall not be able to do so, shall feed sixty poor men. This, that he may believe in God and His Apostle. These are the statutes of God: and for the unbelievers is an afflictive chastisement!”
The above injunction was occasioned by K͟haulah, the daughter of S̤aʿlabah, having pleaded her case with the Prophet, because she had been divorced by her husband Aus ibn aṣ-Ṣāmit, by the formula above-mentioned, and which was understood by the Arabs to imply perpetual separation. Muḥammad had, in the first instance, decreed the divorce in accordance with ancient Arabic law, but relaxed his order in consequence of the woman’s earnest pleadings.
ẔIKR (ذكر). Lit. “Remembering.” Heb. זָכַר zākhar. The religious ceremony, or act of devotion, which is practised by the various religious orders of Faqīrs, or Darweshes. Almost every religious Muḥammadan is a member of some order of Faqīrs, and, consequently, the performance of ẕikr is very common in all Muḥammadan countries; but it does not appear that any one method of performing the religious service of ẕikr is peculiar to any order.
Ẕikrs, are of two kinds: ẕikr jalī, that which is recited aloud, and ẕikr k͟hafī, that which is performed either with a low voice or mentally.
The Naqshbandīyah order of Faqīrs usually perform the latter, whilst the Chishtīyah and Qādirīyah orders celebrate the former. There are various ways of going through the exercise, but the main features of each are similar in character. The following is a ẕikr jalī, as given in the book Qaulu ʾl-Jamīl, by Maulawī Shāh Walīyu ʾllāh, of Delhi:—