The Qur'an treats the end of a marriage as something a believing person might have to live through, and it gives that person instructions for how to do it well. Whole passages are handed over to the subject: who is owed what, how long to wait, what may be said and what may not. The care taken over the detail is itself a kind of message. God did not consider the ending beneath his attention.
Much of that instruction is about conduct. A marriage can end without either person being degraded on the way out, and the Qur'an keeps returning to the word kindness while describing the exit. Do not hold on to them to harm them, it says of a husband who might stretch out a waiting period to punish. Elsewhere it asks two people dividing up what was once promised not to forget generosity between yourselves.
That is the ideal, and most people arrive here having already fallen short of it. Things were said in the last months that cannot be unsaid. You may not recognise the version of yourself from that period, and would rather nobody else had seen it either. The Qur'an is unsentimental about this. Selves are prone to selfishness, it observes, in the middle of a passage urging a couple to try reconciling before matters go further. That line explains why the instructions were needed in the first place.
What happens after the parting gets less attention from almost everyone. One verse says that when two people separate, God will enrich each of them out of his abundance, the one who chose to leave included. Another closes a long stretch of rules with a sentence addressed to whoever is reading it at three in the morning: perhaps God will bring about, after that, a new situation.
The practical questions belong with someone who knows both the law and your circumstances: waiting periods, maintenance, what your own case requires. These verses set the frame around all of that. Grief after a marriage runs on its own clock and pays no attention to whether the paperwork is finished, so the verses about grief sit closer to that part of it. And if what you are trying to recover is a sense of what the thing was meant to be, the verses about marriage are there.
2:229 — Divorce may be pronounced twice. After that, either keep her honorably or release her with kindness. It is not lawful for you to take back anything you have given them, unless both fear they cannot uphold the limits set by God. If you fear they cannot uphold God's limits, then no blame rests on either of them if she gives something for her release. These are God's limits, so do not transgress them. Whoever transgresses God's limits — those are the wrongdoers.
2:231 — When you divorce women and they reach the end of their waiting term, either keep them with kindness or release them with kindness. Do not hold on to them to harm them, transgressing the limits — whoever does that has wronged themselves. Do not take the signs of God in mockery. Remember God's favor upon you, and the Book and wisdom he sent down to you, by which he instructs you. Be mindful of God, and know that God has knowledge of all things.
2:237 — If you divorce them before you have touched them, but have already settled a bridal gift for them, then half of what you settled is due — unless they forgo it, or the one in whose hand is the marriage tie forgoes it. And to forgo is closer to mindfulness of God. Do not forget generosity between yourselves. Indeed, God sees all that you do.
4:35 — And if you fear a rupture between the two of them, appoint an arbiter from his family and an arbiter from hers. If the two of them desire reconciliation, God will bring them into accord. Indeed, God is all-knowing, all-aware.
4:128 — If a woman fears estrangement or withdrawal from her husband, there is no blame on either of them if they reconcile between themselves — and reconciliation is best. Selves are prone to selfishness. But if you act with excellence and remain mindful of God, then God is fully aware of what you do.
4:130 — And if they part, God will enrich each of them out of his abundance. God is all-encompassing, all-wise.
33:49 — You who believe, when you marry believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, no waiting period is owed to you on their part. Provide for them and release them in a gracious manner.
65:1 — O Prophet, when you divorce women, divorce them at the start of their waiting period, and count the period carefully, and be mindful of God, your Lord. Do not turn them out of their homes, nor should they leave, unless they commit a clear indecency. These are the limits set by God, and whoever transgresses the limits of God has wronged his own self. You do not know — perhaps God will bring about, after that, a new situation.
65:7 — Let the one of abundance spend from his abundance, and the one whose provision is limited, let him spend from what God has given him. God does not burden any soul beyond what he has given it. God will bring ease after hardship.