Woman in Islamic Shariah

5. Muslim women ~ 80 ~ 67. Ibn Kathir, As-Sirah an-Nahawiyah, 1/386. 68. Ibid., 1/408-409. 69. Ibid., 1/404. 70. Ibid., 1/399. ABSOLUTE FREEDOM Zihar was an old pagan custom among the Arabs which permitted a husband to nullify his wife’s right to consider herself his lawful spouse. All he had to do was utter the words, “anti1alayiya ka zahr ummi,” meaning, “be to me as my mother’s back.” He was then free of conjugal responsibilities, but the wife was not thereby set free to leave her husband’s home or to contract a second marriage. It happened once in Medina that a Muslim by the name of Aws ibn as-Samit cast off his wife, Khawlah bint Tha’labah, by uttering the fateful words. This was particularly hard on Khawlah, who loved her husband and had little children to support. She lacked the means to provide for her children, but, according to the convention of zihar, she could not claim any support from her husband. She came,