Divorce in Islam

lead to rebellion, such injunctions have been kept to a realistic minimum and formulated to be consistent with normal human capabilities. Moreover, their enforcement is less relied upon than the religious conditioning of the individual to ensure the maintenance of high ethical standards and appropriate conduct in marital affairs and family life. The state of marriage lays the foundations for family life and provides a training ground for individuals to adjust to society positively. When a man and woman prove to be a good husband and wife, they will undoubtedly be good citizens in the broad spectrum of their social group. This has been aptly expressed in a hadith: “The best of you is one who is best for his family.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 1977) The family is the preliminary unit for the training of human beings, and its disintegration has an injurious effect on society. Those human beings must individually make a positive contribution if, collectively, they are to form a good and just nation. If the family no longer exists, the whole of humanity suffers. Once a man and a woman are tied together in the bonds of matrimony, they are expected to do their utmost till the day they die to honour and uphold what the Quran calls their firm contract, or pledge (4:21). To this end, the entire thrust of the Shariah is levelled at preventing the occurrence of divorce; the laws it lays down in this regard exist primarily, therefore, as checks, not incentives.