'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (and if ye fear) if you know (a breech between them twain (the man and wife)) a dispute between the man and woman and you cannot establish who is at fault, (appoint an arbiter from his folk) from the man's folk to the man so that he can hear what he has to say and therefore establish whether he is in the right or wrong (and an arbiter from her folk) from the woman's folk to the woman in order to hear what she has to say and therefore establish whether she is in the right or wrong. (if they) the arbiters (desire amendment) between the man and the woman, (allah will make them of one mind) i.e. the arbiters, the man and the woman. (lo! allah is ever knower) of the agreement and disagreement of the arbiters, (aware) of the doing of the woman and the man. the verses from allah's saying: (men are in charge of women, because allah hath made the one of them to excel the other…) to his saying: (if they desire amendment allah will make them of one mind. lo! allah is ever knower, aware) were revealed about the daughter of muhammad ibn salamah. her husband, as'ad ibn al-rabi' had slapped her because she refused to sleep with him. consequently, she went to the prophet (pbuh) to seek retaliation against her husband, but allah prohibited her from doing so.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : and if you fear, become aware of, a breach, a dispute, between the two, the married couple (the genitive construction shiqāqa baynihimā, ‘[any] breach between the two’, is for a range [of alternatives], in other words: shiqāqan baynihimā [is the normal construction]) send forth, for them with their consent, an arbiter, a just man, from his folk, his kinsmen, and an arbiter from her folk: the husband delegates to his arbiter the [matter of] divorce or the acceptance of compensation in its place, while she delegates to her arbiter the [matter of] separation. the two arbiters do their best and bid the one guilty of the injustice to desist, or they suggest separation if they see fit. god, exalted be he, says, if they, the two arbiters, desire to set things right, god will grant them, the married couple, success, determining for them what constitutes [an act of] obedience, be it reconciliation or separation. surely god is ever knower, of everything, aware, of what is hidden and what is manifested.
