Under Muslim law, if a husband compares his wife with his mother, it amounts to:

The comparison is called zihar: a husband likens his wife to his mother or another woman within the prohibited degrees of relationship. It creates consequences concerning marital cohabitation and expiation, rather than itself being an ordinary pronouncement of talaq. Ila instead concerns a vow of abstinence, while khula and mubarat concern forms of marital release by agreement.