Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
7. Concerning divorce
~ 164 ~
For any arbiter to be successful, however, the
husband and wife must also adopt the correct
attitude. Here is an incident from the period of the
four pious Caliphs which will illustrate this point.
When ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib reigned as fourth Caliph, a
married couple complaining of marital discord
came to him to request a settlement. In the light of
the above-mentioned Qur’anic guidance ‘Ali
ordered that a board of arbiters, one from the
husband’s family and one from the wife’s family, be
set up, which should make proper enquiries into
the circumstances and then give its verdict. This
verdict was to be accepted without argument by
both sides.
As recorded in the book,
Jami’ al-Bayan,
by at-
Tabari, the woman said that she gave her consent,
on the book of God, whether the verdict was for or
against her. But the man protested that he would
not accept the verdict if it was for separation. ‘Ali
said, “What you say is improper. By God, you
cannot move from here until you have shown your
willingness to accept the verdict of the arbiters in
the same spirit as the woman has shown.”
