Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
7. Concerning divorce
~ 168 ~
allows time for relatives to intervene in the hopes of
persuading both husband and wife to avoid a
divorce. Without this gap, none of these things
could be achieved. That is why divorce proceedings
have to be spread out over a long period of time.
All these preventive measures clearly allow frayed
tempers to cool, so that the divorce proceedings
need not reach a stage which is irreversible.
Divorce, after all, has no saving graces, particularly
in respect of its consequences. It simply amounts to
ridding oneself of one set of problems only to
become embroiled in another set of problems.
Despite all such preventive measures, it does
sometimes happen that a man acts in ignorance, or
is rendered incapable of thinking coolly by a fit of
anger. Then on a single occasion, in a burst of
temper, he utters the word “divorce” three times in
a row, “
talaq talaq talaq!”
Such incidents, which took
place in the Prophet’s lifetime, still take place even
today. Now the question arises as to how the
would-be divorcer should be treated. Should his
three utterances of
talo1i
be treated as only one, and
should he then be asked to extend his decision over
