Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
7. Concerning divorce
~ 154 ~
Just think of 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 natural religion. 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 Arabic schools in India. They then give
consideration to her circumstances in the light of
the Qur’an and the Hadith, and, if they find that
there are reasonable grounds for separation, they
decide in her favor. The reason that the woman
must have scholars to act on her behalf is that
women are more emotional than men — as has
been proved by scientific research — and it is to
prevent hasty and ill-considered divorces taking
place that she is thus advised. If we seldom hear of
Muslim women committing suicide, or being
murdered by their in-laws, it is because they have
the alternative — separation.
