Woman Between Islam and Western Society
8. Concerning Divorce
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their social group. This has been aptly expressed in
a
hadith:
“The best of you is one who is best for his
family.”
10
The family being the preliminary unit for the
training of human beings, its disintegration has an
injurious effect on the society to which those human
beings must individually make a positive
contribution, if collectively they are to form a good
and just nation. If the family no longer exists, it is
the whole of humanity which suffers.
Once a man and a woman are tied together in the
bonds of matrimony, they are expected to do their
utmost, till the day they die to honor and uphold
what the Qur’an calls their firm contract, or
pledge.
11
To this end, the full thrust of the
shari’ah
is
leveled at preventing the occurrence of divorce; the
laws it lays down in this regard exist primarily,
therefore, as checks, not incentives.
Islam regards marriage as an extremely desirable
institution, hence its conception of marriage as the
rule of life, and divorce only as an exception to that
rule. According to a
hadith,
the Prophet Muhammad
said, “Marriage is one of my
sunnah
(way). One
