Woman Between Islam and Western Society
8. Concerning Divorce
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the intensity of his emotions and thus the
equivalent of only one such utterance. He is likely
to be told that, having transgressed a
shari’ah
law,
he must seek God’s forgiveness, must regard his
three utterances as only one, and must take a full
three months to arrive at his final decision.
In the first phase of Islam, however, a different view
of divorce was taken by the second Caliph, ‘Umar
ibn al-Khattab. An incident which illustrates his
viewpoint was thus described by Imam Muslim.
In the Prophet’s lifetime, then under the Caliphate
of Abu Bakr and also during the early period of the
Caliphate of ‘Umar, three utterances of
talaq
on one
occasion used to be taken together as only one
utterance. Then it occurred to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
that in spite of the fact that a system had been laid
down which permitted the husband to withdraw
his first, or even second
talaq,
men still wanted to
rush into divorce. He felt that if they were bent on
being hasty, why should not a rule be imposed on
them binding them to a final divorce on the
utterance of
talaq
three times in a row. And he
proceeded to impose such a rule.
