✦ AT A GLANCE ✦
المجادلة
Al-Mujadila
✦ Why this name
The Woman Who Disputes — al-Mujadilah, from the woman in the opening verses who argued her case with the Prophet ﷺ and complained to Allah.
✦ When it came
Madinan. Khawlah bint Tha'labah رضي الله عنها had been divorced by a pre-Islamic formula that left her neither married nor free. She argued her case, and Allah answered from above the seven heavens.
✦ The story
A woman came to the Prophet ﷺ with a marriage problem and would not accept "I have not been told anything about it." She kept pressing, and she raised her complaint to Allah. The first verse of the surah reports it: *"Allah has certainly heard the speech of the one who argues with you concerning her husband and directs her complaint to Allah — and Allah hears your dialogue."*
'A'ishah رضي الله عنها later said she was in the same house and could not make out everything the woman said, *and Allah heard it from above the seven heavens.*
The rest of the surah is about private conversations — secret counsel that excludes and undermines — and about the reassurance that there is no gathering of three where He is not the fourth. And it contains the promise every student holds on to: *"Allah will raise those who believe among you, and those given knowledge, by degrees."*