A man of even ordinary intelligence can glean from these verses a reprimand to the man, who is going to finally divorce his wife. In doing so, he is acknowledging the fact that she will henceforth be a free individual and can choose to engage herself and marry any man of his choice. The verse implies a warning that the conjugal and marital bonds will be cut asundered and the return will not be possible. At least not within foreseeable future, as she will be Halal, lawful for the first husband only if she gets married to another person, shares a conjugal relationship with him and gets divorced through the same elaborate process. It will be a mockery if the former husband, realizing his mistake of discarding and divorcing his wife unmindful of the consequences, stage-manages a marriage of his former wife to another person in order to contrive legitimacy for his reunion with her. It is simply inconceivable from the Qur'anic point of view as it reduces the women to the status of a plaything who can be discarded through stupid and rapid-fire utterances of Talaaq and brought back to himself after a one-night stand with a stranger. To expect that such a fraudulent method would be sanctioned by the Qur'an is in itself a fallacious understanding of the spirit of the Divine Revelation and the status of women in the Qur'an. How could The Qur'an undermine the dignity and self esteem of a woman whom it holds equal to man?
In fact, the Halala is the obnoxious corollary of the allowance of triple Talaaq that has found favour with the today’s interpreters. One farce has led to another sham. The actual process of Talaaq mentioned in the Holy Quran chapter 4 verse 34 is neither preached nor taught to the general Muslim masses. Nor even the scholars of today know it directly from the Qur'an. They only know their man-made Fiqh and issue fatwas.
We need to look at the Qur'anic procedure of Talaaq afresh. In 4/34 & 35, The Qur'an clearly lays down that in the event of any differences or discord of serious nature between husband and wife, the husband has to admonish her first to get the things in shape. If she does not mend her ways, the husband is suggested to leave her alone in bed. If the problem persists, according to some scholars, the husband may punish her if necessary. And according to some scholars, it will be made plain to the lady that the next course of action would be to the appointment of two arbiters which can make the matter known to outsiders.
If the patch-up still does not materialize, the Holy Qur'an lays down the prerequisite of the appointment of an arbiter each from the bride’s and the groom’s families. By this, now both the families will be active in preventing the divorce. It is now fervently hoped that God will repair the bonds between them and cordiality would return. If still all these steps fail, the husband may proceed to divorce her first time.
If there is reunion between them, there will be no break of marriage. But if reunion doesn’t occur, next month this first divorce will become second. And if during these three months, problem remains unsolved and no physical contact, there will be final divorce and separation.
In case the separation becomes inevitable, the Qur'an ordains to appoint 2 reliable persons to witness financial, material and residential issues in 65/6. Once separation takes place, the responsibility of food, housing, medical and education will fall upon the father of the children. Post-separation custody of, access to and maintenance of kids is hardly taken care of nor preached by these self-appointed custodians of the religion.
If the separated wife is pregnant, according to 2/233, the financial responsibility of her health, residence and all other expenses will be on the ex-husband till the delivery of the child. If the ex-husband, i.e. the father of the new born wants to get the infant nursed and breast feed by the divorced mother, he has to bear the responsibility of housing, food, clothing, healthcare and remuneration not more than 2 years. The financial responsibilities for both, the mother and the new born will rest with the father of the child.
The divorced ladies have to avoid next marriage at least for three months or duration of three menstrual periods according to 2/228. During this period, all the expenditure will be borne by the ex-husband. He has to provide the residence on par with the standard they maintained when they were married. The final statement on Talaaq appears in verse first verse of chapter 65. The name of this Surah is At-Talaaq: itself.
“O Prophet! (say to your people that) when you intend to divorce women,
divorce them at their prescribed periods, and keep counting of the prescribed period,
and be conscious of ALLAH, your Sustainer. Do not expel them from their homes;
and neither shall they (be made to) leave unless they become openly guilty of immoral conduct. These are the bounds set by ALLAH - and he who transgresses the bounds set by ALLAH
does indeed sin against himself …..”
The verse quoted above says that three Talaaqs at one go is allowed only in the case of adultery. In such case a husband can’t wait for a time bound process of divorce. This is also very much natural as no husband can withstand a cumbersome process in the event of open lewdness and the revulsion emanating from it.
The pity is that the so-called scholars don’t know there are 4 essential steps to be taken into consideration before pronouncing first Talaaq. They never propagate this nor the procedure of periodical Talaaq. And finally either they don’t know or they want to keep the male section of the Muslims in dark about the provision of providing residence to the divorced lady for the prescribed period to pass for another marriage. If this has been known to the public, millions of divorce cases could not have happen. In fact persons not having another accommodation have to move out of their homes to allow the lady to pass the stipulated period. Even the scholars don’t preach that all the responsibilities of the children rest with the father only in the case of divorce and lady will be free to marry any person. They only disclose to the public how to kick out the wife mercilessly in helpless condition in the name of The Most Gracious and Bountiful God, God of Universe, God of women-folk too.
May Allah guide us straight path and let us make able to find out the solution of our problems from His Divine Writ rather than asking the so-called scholars.
*****
By:
Mr. Maqbool Ahmed Siraj,
Bangalore.
Email: maqbool_siraj@rediffmail.com
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