226- FOR THOSE WHO MAKE AN OATH TO ABSTAIN FROM THEIR WIVES, THEY MAY WAIT FOR UP TO FOUR MONTH, IF THEY RESUME LIFE TOGETHER; ALLAH IS MOST FORGIVING AND MOST MERCIFUL.

227- AND IF THEY DECIDED TO DIVORCE, ALLAH HEARS AND KNOWS ALL THINGS.

These two Ayahs were sent down to correct an injustice some women used to suffer.  Men were able to swear an oath not to touch their wives.  Following which they may go on for a long time depriving their wives of their conjugal rights.  The wife remained; neither divorced then able to remarry, nor married.  These Ayahs put an end to this injustice.

Allah the Highest tells us that those who swear an oath to stay away from their wives have four month maximum for this abstention.  Or if separated due to any disputes between them, they have four month to sort their problems out so that they can get back together or end the marriage by divorce.  It does not have to go on for four month, but the maximum is four month. 

This prevents open ended marital disputes, in which the wife is often the losing party if left without a divorce and without reconciliation.  Divorce is not necessarily an end, although it is an act not liked by Allah the Highest.  It can be a solution and a beginning to a new and better marriage.

There is a difference in opinion between the scholars as to whether the Edda (the period following divorce during which a woman can not remarry) should be one or three menstrual cycles as in normal divorce?  In case of the divorced woman being pregnant, her Edda ends at the end of her pregnancy.

In the next Ayahs; there are detailed commands and Law about matrimonial as well as divorce issues.  It is important to understand them properly as they really affect us.