Islamic Divorce: A Practice In Degradation
Islamic Divorce: A Practice In Degradation
Surah 2
(226) They who vow to abstain from their wives are allowed to wait four months: but if they go back from their vow, verily God is gracious and merciful; (227) and if they resolve on a divorce, God is he who heareth and knoweth. (228) The women who are divorced shall wait concerning themselves until they have their courses thrice, and it shall not be lawful for them to conceal that which God hath created in their wombs, if they believe in God and the last day; and their husbands will act more justly to bring them back at this time, if they desire a reconciliation. The women ought also to behave towards their husbands in like manner as their husbands should behave towards them, according to what is just: but the men ought to have a superiority over them. God is mighty and wise.
(229) Ye may divorce your wives twice; and then either retain them with humanity, or dismiss them with kindness. But it is not lawful for you to take away anything of what ye have given them, unless both fear that they cannot observe the ordinance of God. And if ye fear that they cannot observe the ordinance of God, it shall be no crime in either of them on account of that for which the wife shall redeem herself. These are the ordinances of God; therefore transgress them not; for whoever transgresseth the ordinances of God, they are unjust doers. (230) But if the husband divorce her a third time, she shall not be lawful for him again, until she marry another husband. But if he also divorce her, it shall be no crime in them if they return to each other, if they think they can observe the ordinances of God, and these are the ordinances of God; he declareth them to people of understanding. (231) But when ye divorce women, and they have fulfilled their prescribed time, either retain them with humanity or dismiss them with kindness; and retain them not by violence, so that ye transgress; for he who doth this surely injureth his own soul. And make not the signs of God a jest: but remember God’s favour towards you, and that he hath sent down unto you the book of the Qurán, and wisdom admonishing you thereby; and fear God, and know that God is omniscient.
(232) But when ye have divorced your wives, and they have fulfilled their prescribed time, hinder them not from marrying their husbands, when they have agreed among themselves according to what is honourable. This is given in admonition unto him among you who believeth in God, and the last day. This is most righteous for you, and most pure. God knoweth, but ye know not. (233) Mothers after they are divorced shall give suck unto their children two full years, to him who desireth the time of giving suck to be completed; and the father shall be obliged to maintain them and clothe them in the meantime, according to that which shall be reasonable. No person shall be obliged beyond his ability. A mother shall not be compelled to what is unreasonable on account of her child, nor a father on account of his child. And the heir of the father shall be obliged to do in like manner. But if they choose to wean the child before the end of two years, by common consent and on mutual consideration, it shall be no crime in them. And if ye have a mind to provide a nurse for your children, it shall be no crime in you, in case ye fully pay what ye offer her, according to that which is just. And fear God, and know that God seeth whatsoever ye do. (234) Such of you as die, and leave wives, their wives must wait concerning themselves four months and ten days, and when they shall have fulfilled their term, it shall be no crime in you, for that which they shall do with themselves, according to what is reasonable. God well knoweth that which ye do. (235) And it shall be no crime in you, whether ye make public overtures of marriage unto such women, within the said four months and ten days, or whether ye conceal such your designs in your minds: God knoweth that ye will remember them. But make no promises unto them privately, unless ye speak honourable words; and resolve not on the knot of marriage until the prescribed time be accomplished; and know that God knoweth that which is in your minds, therefore beware of him and know that God is gracious and merciful.
(236) It shall be no crime in you if ye divorce your wives, so long as ye have not touched them, nor settled any dowry on them. And provide for them (he who is at his ease must provide according to his circumstances, and he who is straitened according to his circumstances) necessaries, according to what shall be reasonable. This is a duty incumbent on the righteous. (237) But if ye divorce them before ye have touched them, and have already settled a dowry on them, ye shall give them half of what ye have settled, unless they release any part, or he release part in whose hand the knot of marriage is; and if ye release the whole, it will approach nearer unto piety. And forget not liberality among you, for God seeth that which ye do.
(240) And such of you as shall die and leave wives, ought to bequeath their wives a year’s maintenance, without putting them out of their houses: but if they go out voluntarily, it shall be no crime in you, for that which they shall do with themselves, according to what shall be reasonable: God is mighty and wise. (241) And unto those who are divorced, a reasonable provision is also due: this is a duty incumbent on those who fear God. (242) Thus God declareth his signs unto you, that ye may understand.
Surah 33
(4) God hath not given a man two hearts within him; neither hath he made your wives (some of whom ye divorce, regarding them thereafter as your mothers) your true mothers; nor hath he made your adopted sons your true sons. This is your saying in your mouths: but God speaketh the truth; and he directeth the right way.
Analysis
The Arabians had been accustomed, before the time of Muhammad, to divorce their wives with the words,--thy back be to me as the back of my mother. The drift and motive of this passage is explained by verse 37 below. It had also been the custom to hold adopted sons to be as nearly related to them as their natural ones.
(Rodwell)
The plan was to obtain his adopted son's wife, Zeyd, as his own.
Surah 33
(36) It is not fit for a true believer of either sex, when God and his Apostle have decreed a thing, that they should have the liberty of choosing a different matter of their own: and whoever is disobedient unto God and his Apostle, surely erreth with a manifest error. (37) And remember when thou saidst to him unto whom God had been gracious, and on whom thou also hadst conferred favours, Keep thy wife to thyself, and fear God: and thou didst conceal that in thy mind which God had determined to discover, and didst fear men; whereas it was more just that thou shouldest fear God. But when Zaid had determined the matter concerning her, and had resolved to divorce her, we joined her in marriage unto thee, lest a crime should be charged on the true believers, in marrying the wives of their adopted sons, when they have determined the matter concerning them; and the command of God is to be performed. (38) No crime is to be charged on the Prophet as to what God hath allowed him, conformable to the ordinance of God with regard to those who preceded him (for the command of God is a determinate decree),
(48) O true believers, when ye marry women who are believers, and afterwards put them away before ye have touched them, there is no term prescribed you to fulfil towards them after their divorce; but make them a present, and dismiss them freely with an honourable dismission.
Surah 58
IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.
(1) Now hath God heard the speech of her who disputed with thee concerning her husband, and made her complaint unto God; and God hath heard your mutual discourse: for God both heareth and seeth. (2) As to those among you who divorce their wives by declaring that they will thereafter regard them as their mothers, let them know that they are not their mothers. They only are their mothers who brought them forth; and they certainly utter an unjustifiable saying and a falsehood: (3) but God is gracious and ready to forgive. (4) Those who divorce their wives by declaring that they will for the future regard them as their mothers, and afterwards would repair what they have said, shall be obliged to free a captive before they touch one another. That is what ye are warned to perform: and God is well apprised of that which ye do. (5) And whoso findeth not a captive to redeem shall observe a fast of two consecutive months before they touch one another. And whoso shall not be able to fast that time shall feed threescore poor men. This is ordained you that ye may believe in God and his Apostle. These are the statutes of God: and for the unbelievers is prepared a grievous torment. (6) Verily they who oppose God and his Apostle shall be brought low, as the unbelievers who preceded them were brought low. And now have we sent down manifest signs: and an ignominious punishment awaiteth the unbelievers. (7) On a certain day God shall raise them all to life, and shall declare unto them that which they have wrought. God hath taken an exact account thereof; but they have forgotten the same: and God is witness over all things.
Surah 65
IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.
(1) O Prophet, when ye divorce women, put them away at their appointed term; and compute the term exactly: and fear God your Lord. Oblige them not to go out of their apartments, neither let them go out, until the term be expired, unless they be guilty of manifest uncleanness. These are the statutes of God; and whoever transgresseth the statutes of God assuredly injureth his own soul. Thou knowest not whether God will bring something new to pass, which may reconcile them after this. (2) And when they shall have fulfilled their term, either retain them with kindness, or part from them honourably: and take witnesses from among you, men of integrity; and give your testimony as in the presence of God. (3) This admonition is given unto him who believeth in God and the last day; and whoso feareth God, unto him will he grant a happy issue out of all his afflictions, and he will bestow on him an ample provision from whence he expecteth it not: and whoso trusteth in God, he will be his sufficient support; for God will surely attain his purpose. Now hath God appointed unto everything a determined period. (4) As to such of your wives as shall despair having their courses, by reason of their age; if ye be in doubt thereof, let their term be three months: and let the same be the term of those who have not yet had their courses. But as to those who are pregnant, their term shall be until they be delivered of their burden. And whoso feareth God, unto him will he make his command easy. (5) This is the command of God, which he hath sent down unto you. And whoso feareth God, he will expiate his evil deeds from him and will increase his reward. (6) Suffer the women whom ye divorce to dwell in some part of the houses wherein ye dwell; according to the room and conveniences of the habitations which ye possess: and make them not uneasy, that ye may reduce them to straits. And if they be with child, expend on them what shall be needful, until they be delivered of their burden. And if they suckle their children for you, give them their hire; and consult among yourselves, according to what shall be just and reasonable. And if ye be put to a difficulty herein, and another woman shall suckle the child for him, (7) let him who hath plenty expend proportionably in the maintenance of the mother and the nurse out of his plenty: and let him whose income is scanty expend in proportion out of that which God hath given him. God obligeth no man to more than he hath given him ability to perform: God will cause ease to succeed hardship.
(8) How many cities have turned aside from the command of the Lord and his apostles! Wherefore we brought them to a severe account; and we chastised them with a grievous chastisement: (9) and they tasted the evil consequence of their business; and the end of their business was perdition. (10) God hath prepared for them severe punishment; wherefore fear God, O ye who are endued with understanding. (11) True believers, now hath God sent down unto you an admonition, an Apostle who may rehearse unto you the perspicuous signs of God; that he may bring forth those who believe and do good works from darkness into light. And whoso believeth in God and doth that which is right, him will he lead into gardens beneath which rivers flow, to remain therein for ever: now hath God made an excellent provision for him. (12) It is God who hath created seven heavens, and as many different storeys of the earth; the divine command descendeth between them; that ye may know that God is omnipotent, and that God comprehendeth all things by his knowledge.
The Biblical Account
Rev. John Lightfoot (1602-1675) , in his Hebrew And Talmudical Exercitations Upon The Gospel Of Matthew 5:31 (1658) says this:
Quote “ God , indeed, granted to that nation a law concerning divorces, Deut. xxiv.1, permitted only" for the hardness of their hearts,'' Matt. xix. 8 : in which permission, nevertheless, they boast, as though it were indulged them by mere privilege. When God had established that fatal law of punishing adultery by death (Deut. xxii.), for the terror of the people, and for their avoiding of that sin; the same merciful God foreseeing, also, how hard (occasion being taken from this law) the issue of this might be to the women, by reason of the roughness of the men;-lusting, perhaps, after other women·, arid loathing their own wives ,- he mere graciously provided against such kind of• wife- killing by a law, mitigating the former, and allowed the putting away a wife in the same case, concerning which that fatal law was Given,- namely, in the case of adultery . So that that law of divorce, in the exhibition of it, implied their hearts to be hard ; and, in the use of it, they showed them to be carnal….” Unquote.
Deuteronomy 22
13 If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her, 14 accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, “I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity;” 15 then the young lady’s father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16 The young lady’s father shall tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. 17 Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;’ and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.” They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him. 19 They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver,[b] and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.
20 But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady, 21 then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
Deuteronomy 24
When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 When she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 3 If the latter husband hates her, and write her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife; 4 her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife after she is defiled; for that would be an abomination to Yahweh. You shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance. 5 When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.
Jeremiah 3. Islamic Divorce And Remarriage Pollutes The Land
They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.
2 “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. 3 Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain; yet you have had a prostitute’s forehead and you refused to be ashamed. 4 Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth!’?
5 “‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.”
Matthew 5
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,’ Deuteronomy 24:1 32 but I tell you that whoever puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery.
1 Corinthians 7
10 But to the married I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife not leave her husband 11 (but if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband not leave his wife.
12 But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. 13 The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. 15 Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
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