ISLAMIC APPROACH TO DIVORCE

In various ways, God helps such distressed people. For example, when a woman is divorced, it is but natural that the sympathy of all her blood relations should be aroused. And, as a result, without any pressure being put on them, they are willing to help and look after her. Besides, a new will-power is awakened in such a woman and she sets about exploiting her hidden potentialities, thus solving her problems independently. Furthermore, previous experiences having left her wiser and more careful, she feels better equipped to enter into another marital relationship with greater success. After Divorce The question that arises immediately after divorce is of ways and means to meet one’s necessary expenses. One answer is to resort to the Islamic law of inheritance. If women were to be given their due share according to Islamic law, there would be no question of woman becoming destitute. But, sad to say, the majority of Muslim women fail to get their due share of inheritance from their deceased fathers and husbands as stipulated by Islamic Law. If this could happen, this would be more than enough to meet such emergencies. However, Islam has not just left women’s financial problems to the vagaries of inheritance, because parents are not invariably in possession of property which can be divided among their children. Further arrangements have been made under the maintenance law, but this has no connection with the law of divorce. The answer to this question must be sought therefore in the Islamic law of maintenance. The following is a brief description of some of its aspects: 1. In case the divorced woman is childless or the children are not earning, according to Islamic law the responsibility for her maintenance falls on her father. That is, her situation will be the same as it was before marriage. To quote from Fath al-Qadeer (a standard book on Islamic law): “The father is responsible for bearing the expenses of his daughter till her marriage, in the event of her having no money. The father has no right to force her to earn, even if she is able to. When the girl is divorced and the waiting period is over, her father shall again have to bear her expenses.” If women were to be given their due share according to Islamic law, there would be no question of woman becoming destitute.