2/232 — Do not obstruct
"When you divorce women and they have completed their waiting period, do not prevent them from marrying their former husbands, if they agree between themselves in a fitting way."
فَلَا تَعْضُلُوهُنَّ — root ع-ض-ل. The concrete sense the lexicographers record is striking: ʿaḍalati'l-nāqa — the she-camel's giving birth being blocked, the young not being able to come out. From this comes the sense "to squeeze, to block the way, to leave without a solution".
The choice of the word shows the character of the behaviour forbidden: the obstruction is set up not by a ruling but by the blocking of the way out.
Who is addressed is not named in the verse; a plural masculine address is used, and it is transmitted in the classical commentaries that these are the woman's guardians or her former husband.
ذَٰلِكُمْ أَزْكَىٰ لَكُمْ وَأَطْهَرُ — the ground is again given: purer and more cleansing. That the ground should be given together with the ruling is the characteristic of this section.