Mohammad Rafoqie
Junior Member
by Mohammad Rafique Etesam
Some people see that the innovational divorce is the form of divorce prevalent in the Jahillah period before Islam and Islam condemned such type of divorce and replaced it with Talaq-i-Sunnah. Halalah is an evil custom of the Jahilliah period (The time of ignorance before Islam). They further say that this divorce (innovational) of jahillah period was reintroduced by the monarchy for ulterior purpose . Although the great Muslim jurists condemned it, declaring it an innovation in Islam but the “half-educated” Muslim Scholars supported it for some reasons best known to them.
It is then necessary to examine the issue in the light of shariah so that the other opinion of this issue may also be observed. No doubt that divorce is very loathsome action in Islam . That is why it is allowed only in the rare cases when the spouses feel that they cannot live together and separation is inevitable for them. Then there are two ways for them i.e. ‘talaq’ or khula. According to the teachings of Islam when a husband divorces his wife for the first and second time, he has yet a chance to return to her wife without any trouble. But if he divorces her for the third time, then he cannot return to his wife, except after “Halalah”. It means that this divorced woman should marry another man and if he divorces her, then she can get herself married to her first husband.
Halalah is the real apple of discord between the half educated Ulama and the “full educated scholars”. Because the full educated scholars claim that there is nothing like Halalah in Islam and it is only a self-mad term of mullahs.
Let us see whether Halalah is allowed in Islam or not? It was an evil custom of the Jahillaiah period that the husbands divorced their wives by pronouncing countless “talaqs’ (even hundred or more) and during the’Iddat” (waiting period of a widow or a divorce woman ) they returned to their wives. By such a way, the ill-fated women could not get her free from the cruel custody of their husbands .(Trimadhi, Mustadrak Hakim). To uproot that bad custom, Allah Almighty Ordained that after pronouncing divorce for third times, now a husband had no authority to return to his wife but after Halalah. Says in the Holy Quran, “divorce must be pronounced twice and then (a woman) must be retained in honor or released in kindness.”And Says, “And if he hath divorced her (the third time ) then she is not lawful unto him there after until she hath wedded another husband. Then if he (the other husband) divorces her it is no sin for both of them that they come together again if they consider that they are able to observe the limits of Allah He manifesteth them for people who have knowledge .(Al-Baqrah:230) As regards the Hadith, so a wife of a man named ‘Rifaah’ came to the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and complained against her second husband of his disability of conjugal rights. The Holy (PBUH) asked if she wanted to marry again her first husband? She confirmed it. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) replied that it was quite impossible till he accomplished his sexual desire from her and she also did the same, (Bukhare, Muslim). We concluded from that incident that:-
Halalah will be authentic only when her second husband divorces her by his own will and approval not under any pressure and greed. In this regard, conditional marriages are contraband in the light of Shariah in which the second husband divorces his wife after a fixed period. (Darme, Ibn-i-Maja). Above-mentioned details make it clear that Halalah is proved in the light of Shariah.
Would the any scholar please clear it whether the Quranic verses and Hadith about Halalah have been abrogated by any other verses or hadith?