يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓا۟ إِذَا جَآءَكُمُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنَٰتُ مُهَٰجِرَٰتٍۢ فَٱمْتَحِنُوهُنَّ ۖ ٱللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِإِيمَٰنِهِنَّ ۖ فَإِنْ عَلِمْتُمُوهُنَّ مُؤْمِنَٰتٍۢ فَلَا تَرْجِعُوهُنَّ إِلَى ٱلْكُفَّارِ ۖ لَا هُنَّ حِلٌّۭ لَّهُمْ وَلَا هُمْ يَحِلُّونَ لَهُنَّ ۖ وَءَاتُوهُم مَّآ أَنفَقُوا۟ ۚ وَلَا جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ أَن تَنكِحُوهُنَّ إِذَآ ءَاتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ ۚ وَلَا تُمْسِكُوا۟ بِعِصَمِ ٱلْكَوَافِرِ وَسْـَٔلُوا۟ مَآ أَنفَقْتُمْ وَلْيَسْـَٔلُوا۟ مَآ أَنفَقُوا۟ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ حُكْمُ ٱللَّهِ ۖ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَكُمْ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌۭ
O you who have faith! When faithful women come to you as immigrants, test them. Allah knows best [the state of] their faith. Then, if you ascertain them to be [genuinely] faithful women, do not send them back to the faithless. They are not lawful for them, nor are they lawful for them, but give them what [dowry] they have spent [for them]. There is no sin upon you in marrying them when you have given them their dowries. Do not hold on to [conjugal] ties with faithless women. Demand [from the infidels] what you have spent [as dowries], and let the faithless demand [from you] what they have spent [as dowries]. That is Allah’s judgment; He judges between you, and Allah is all-knowing, all-wise.
وَإِن فَاتَكُمْ شَىْءٌۭ مِّنْ أَزْوَٰجِكُمْ إِلَى ٱلْكُفَّارِ فَعَاقَبْتُمْ فَـَٔاتُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ ذَهَبَتْ أَزْوَٰجُهُم مِّثْلَ مَآ أَنفَقُوا۟ ۚ وَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِىٓ أَنتُم بِهِۦ مُؤْمِنُونَ
If anything [of the dowries] pertaining to your wives is not reclaimed from the faithless and then you have your turn, then give to those whose wives have left the like of what they have spent, and be wary of Allah in whom you have faith.
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
These verses give the sura its name (al-mumtahana, "the woman examined"). When believing women emigrate, they are to be tested for the sincerity of their faith; if found genuine they are not to be returned to their disbelieving husbands, for the marriage bond between believer and disbeliever is dissolved. A web of financial rulings follows — the former husband's dower is refunded, the woman may be remarried on a new dower, disbelieving wives are to be released, and mutual dower-claims are settled; v.11 provides that where a wife defects and her dower is not recovered, her husband is compensated from booty.
Al-Mizan, Tabarsi and Tusi expound the rulings in close agreement, all setting them after Hudaybiyya, whose term (return of Meccan men, not women) is the backdrop; Tabarsi names the trigger-case Subay'a bint al-Harith, Tusi Umm Kulthum bint Abi Mu'ayt. All three catalogue the modes of "testing" (an oath that she emigrated only for faith, not from marital hatred or worldly motive; or the two testimonies; or, per 'A'isha, the terms of v.12). All three read "they are not lawful for them" as marking the dissolution of the marriage, and all three treat "do not hold to the ties of disbelieving women" ('isam al-kawafir) as general. Here a notable divergence surfaces: al-Mizan holds there is no true abrogation between this verse and 5:5 (which permits marrying chaste women of the People of the Book), harmonizing them (5:5 confined to temporary marriage); Tusi flatly concludes the verse "proves the prohibition of a Muslim marrying a Jewish or Christian woman." Bahrani presses the Imami reading hardest, stacking narrations: Zurara from al-Baqir that 5:5 is abrogated by this verse and marriage to the People of the Book is improper, and — most distinctively — al-Fudayl b. Yasar's report that a believing woman should not be married even to a Muslim who does not share the Shi'i view, the Imam reading "the disbelievers" of v.10 to bar it. (This last, sectarian gloss is flagged for human review.) On v.11, Tusi, Tabarsi, Qummi and Bahrani explain fa-'aqabtum as gaining the upper hand in war and winning booty, from which the bereaved husband is made whole; Qummi and Bahrani add the historical case of 'Umar's wife Fatima bint Abi Umayya, who stayed with the polytheists and was married by Mu'awiya b. Abi Sufyan, God ordering the Prophet to compensate 'Umar. Bahrani further records al-Sadiq's ruling that the Imam pays this compensation from the treasury whether or not booty is taken.