Another example of a practice that caused suffering and that raised demands for change, and in turn elicited a strong Qur'anic response relates to repeated marriages and divorces done in an abusive way. In pre-Islamic Arabia, a man enjoyed the exclusive right to divorce his wife with or without cause. After the divorce, a woman was compelled to go through something known as the 'idda (a specific waiting period before she could marry again), during which a husband could remarry his divorcee without a new contract or dowry. Many men started using these privileges as a way to torment women -- as a way of spite, a man would divorce his wife, wait until a day or two before the 'idda period was about to expire, and then remarry his wife again, only to divorce her again immediately so that a new waiting period would begin. This would be done over and over without any limit. This was used as a way of keeping a woman hanging -- such a woman would neither be married nor divorced. As long as the husband kept taking his divorcee back shortly before the end of the waiting period, the wife would remain in an impossible situation, never being able to remarry as long as her husband kept exercising his option during the waiting period. In one version of this same practice, husbands would add insult to injury by proclaiming, one or two days before the end of the waiting period, "La'ibt" ("I was just playing, jesting, or fooling around").
Several women complained to the Prophet about these practices and asked for a solution, and the Prophet asked them to wait until he received revelation on the matter. The Qur'anic response to these practices was manifold, and as is typical of Qur'anic methodology, the Qur'an limited the potential for abuse without fundamentally changing the existing social structure. Condemning those who divorce and remarry women out of a desire to torment and harass them, the Qur'an exclaimed that a husband should either live with his wife in kindness and honor, or divorce her also in kindness and honor; but in all situations, those who hold on to their wives in order to torment or harass them have committed a great sin and they have become among those who are unjust toward themselves. In addition, while not eradicating the practice of 'idda, the Qur'an limited the process to two times. A husband and wife may divorce and return to each other during the waiting period, but only two times. If there is a third divorce, they cannot remarry during the waiting period. As to those who insulted their wives by telling them they were just jesting, the Qur'an describes such behavior as sinful and responds by saying: "Do not mock the words and decrees of your Lord."
