ISLAMIC APPROACH TO DIVORCE

and women knew no limits, and this had the effect of weakening the marriage bond. Men and women were no more husbands and wives. In the words of the Prophet, they became sensual, pleasure-seeking people. This, state of affairs was given a boost by industrialization, as a woman could easily procure an independent livelihood for herself. This had never before been possible. Because of this, a large number of social problems have emerged, one of them being greatly increased rates of divorce. The philosophers who wanted to check divorce, advocated legal curbs on men, which would legally bind them to provide maintenance to the wife after divorce. This maintenance sum was fixed according to living standards, so that in most cases, divorce meant that the man had to part with a fair amount of his hard-earned money for the rest of his life. One victim of this unnatural state of affairs was Bertrand Russell (d. 1970), one of the most intelligent and outstanding intellectuals of his time. Soon after his marriage, he discovered that his wife no longer inspired any feelings of love in him. Although realizing this incompatibility, he did not seek an immediate separation. In spite of severe mental torture, he tried to bear with this situation for many years. He refers to this period as one of “darkest despair”. Finally, he had to separate and remarry, but he was not satisfied even with the second match, and he married for the third time. Two divorces were a costly bargain. According to English law, the amount of alimony and maintenance he had to pay his wives upset him greatly. He writes in his Autobiography: “ ... the financial burden was heavy and rather disturbing: I had given £ 10,000/- of my Nobel Prize cheque for a little more than £ 11,000/- to my third wife, and I was now paying alimony to her and to my second wife as well as paying for the education of my younger son. Added to this, there were heavy expenses in connection with my elder son’s illness; and the income taxes which for many years he had neglected to pay now fell to me to pay.” (Bertrand Russell, Autobiography, Unwin Paperbacks (London) 1978). Such a law had been passed in order to ensure justice for women who had to resort to divorce. But when people began to realize that divorce inevitably led one into financial straits, the marriage bond began to be dispensed with altogether. Men and women simply started to live together without going through the formality of a marriage ceremony. Now more than fifty percent of the younger generation [in some countries] prefers to live in the unmarried state.