Married Life

Islam allowed in principle dissolution of marriage in all three situations of discord; and thus satisfied human nature. But, at the same time, it has imposed so many conditions that divorce becomes hard to perform. For example, the husband must be adult and sane, should give divorce by his own free will and intention; it must be done in approved formular, before two men of approved probity; the wife must be free from menses etc., and the couple should not have cohabited after her last menses.

After divorce, a period of three months " `iddah " was prescribed; may be the parties feel remorse on separation and are ready to restore the marriage ties again. If so, then the divorce may be revoked and the marriage continues.

Another benefit of this rule is to make sure that the woman is not pregnant from her previous husband.

Divorce: The most disliked permission Together with these conditions, it has been emphasized that the divorce is very much disliked by Allah and His Prophet. The Holy Prophet said:

The worst of all permitted things is divorce. The Holy Prophet also said Gabriel advised me about (gentle dealings with) the women, so much so that I thought that she should not be divorced except because of open unchastity.

Here the Holy Prophet is saying the same thing which is attributed to Christ in Mathew. But see the difference in language and then compare the results of these two sayings. Injil put unnecessary burden on human nature, and as a result,

its followers flauted its ruling and indulged in unbridled lawlessness. Islam allowed divorce, but showed its displeasure with it, relying on human feelings to keep its use to the minimum. The result is that in Islamic society divorce is a rare thing; and a Muslim's domestic life is so secured that non-Muslims cannot imagine it.

Adopted from the book: "The Family Life of Islam" by: "Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizivi"