﴿ فَمَن لَّمْ يَجِدْ فَصِيَامُ شَهْرَيْنِ مُتَتَابِعَيْنِ مِن قَبْلِ أَن يَتَمَآسَّا ۖ فَمَن لَّمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَإِطْعَامُ سِتِّينَ مِسْكِينًۭا ۚ ذَٰلِكَ لِتُؤْمِنُوا۟ بِٱللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِۦ ۚ وَتِلْكَ حُدُودُ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَلِلْكَٰفِرِينَ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ﴾

“However, he who does not have the where­withal shall fast [instead] for two consecutive months before the couple may touch one another again; and he who is unable to do it shall feed sixty needy ones: this, so that you might prove your faith in God and His Apostle. Now these are the bounds set by God; and grievous suffering [in the life to come] awaits all who deny the truth.”

Islam distinguishes between form and reality. That is why Islam has not recognised the old custom of a man’s calling a woman ‘mother’, although she is not his real mother, and then treating her as such for the purpose of divorcing her. Any such action is absurd, because it cannot change the laws of nature. It is clarified in the Quran that simply by acting in the above-mentioned manner, a man’s wife does not stand divorced. However, it has been made compulsory for the concerned person to pay a penalty and then go back to his wife. After committing an error, if a man pays a penalty in this way, he revives his faith, which he had discarded due to negligence or stupidity.