ISLAMIC APPROACH TO DIVORCE

collected all he could in the house and was planning to flee the United States when the police caught up with him. He was eventually jailed on charges of murder. It is obvious that Manu was not careless in selecting her partner. She travelled from America to find a suitable match in her birthplace. But all that glitters is not gold. Our human limitations make it impossible for us to understand every facet of a person’s character before entering into a relationship with them. The question arises if, after such revelations, should one feel forced to respect a marriage bond even at the cost of one’s life? When society considers separation taboo or the laws on this show no leniency, the only alternatives left for such incompatible couples are either to commit suicide or to waste away the whole of their lives in “darkest despair”. Even when one dares to surmount the hurdle of divorce, it is very difficult to get remarried in societies where divorcees are looked down upon. One can at best marry someone beneath one’s social status. But in Islam remarriage is not a taboo. The Prophet himself married a widow. The provisions of Islam are thus a great blessing to couples who realize only too late that they have erred in making their choice of a partner. Islam provides for them the convenience to separate amicably, in a spirit of goodwill. Just think of the couples wasting away the whole of their lives in mental torment only because the conditions of separation and its consequences are hard to meet. It is as unnatural as anything can be. Islam is a religion of nature. That is why such a situation has not developed in Muslim communities because Islamic law on marriage and divorce provides for all, or almost all, eventualities. For example, when a woman wishes to divorce her husband, she has to put her case before a religious scholar, or a body of religious scholars. This facility is available to her in all the great madrasas or Islamic seminaries in India. They then give consideration to her circumstances in the light of the Quran and the Hadith, and, if they find that there are reasonable grounds for separation, they decide in her favour. The reason that the woman must have scholars to act on her behalf is that women are The provisions of Islam are thus a great blessing to couples who realize only too late that they have erred in making their choice of a partner. Islam provides for them the convenience to separate amicably, in a spirit of goodwill.