Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
5. Muslim women
~ 80 ~
67.
Ibn Kathir,
As-Sirah an-Nahawiyah,
1/386.
68.
Ibid., 1/408-409.
69.
Ibid., 1/404.
70.
Ibid., 1/399.
ABSOLUTE FREEDOM
Zihar
was an old pagan custom among the Arabs
which permitted a husband to nullify his wife’s
right to consider herself his lawful spouse. All he
had to do was utter the words,
“anti1alayiya ka zahr
ummi,”
meaning, “be to me as my mother’s back.”
He was then free of conjugal responsibilities, but
the wife was not thereby set free to leave her
husband’s home or to contract a second marriage.
It happened once in Medina that a Muslim by the
name of Aws ibn as-Samit cast off his wife, Khawlah
bint Tha’labah, by uttering the fateful words. This
was particularly hard on Khawlah, who loved her
husband and had little children to support. She
lacked the means to provide for her children, but,
according to the convention of
zihar,
she could not
claim any support from her husband. She came,
