Abstract
The Qurʾān and Sunna texts, which are the main sources of Islam, included many legal provisions regarding the family that constitutes the foundation of the society. One of the juristic regulations made by the Qurʾān regarding the practices of the Jāhiliyya period which caused injustice in the family is that reproaching the ẓihār and imposing punitive measures on it. Ẓihār is a form of divorce in which the husband utters certain words to his wife and has legal consequences. Islamic jurists divided the words that have legal consequences into two types: Clear words (ṣarīḥ) and allusive words (kināya). If there is no special meaning determined by religion about the meaning that a term signifies, they have taken the custom (al-ʿurf) as basis. Since there is no decisive expression in the verses about the features of the ẓihār, the custom should be taken as a basis in this issue as well. In this article, we will try to reveal that the word ẓahr is used in the act of ẓihār as a metaphor and there is no word expressing the same meaning in Turkish nor in Arabic. Expanding the words used for ẓihār, which has lost its meaning and function in the period of Jāhiliyya, would not be an appropriate for interest and purpose. As a result, the idea of preserving the literal form of ẓihār, and the thought that the other expressions cannot have the same meaning, are appearing as more accurate perspective.