Woman Between Islam and Western Society
8. Concerning Divorce
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which a long gap has been prescribed by the
shari’ah.
The purpose of this gap is to give the
husband sufficient time to revise his decision, and
to consult the well-wishers around him. It also
allows time for relative 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
