Restricts of divorce and family affairs in the Holy Quran

The issue of divorce and family affairs is one of the most important issues that the Holy Quran has dealt with in great accuracy and details. Perhaps we will not find anything related to marriage or divorce that was not detailed and clarified in a verse of the Qur’an to guarantee the rights of all sides and members.

In the following lines, we review with you the verses of the Holy Quran about divorce, family affairs and the related issues. The aim is to utilize these verses as the constitution and basic reference to legalize the termination of that relationship and the sacred bond between spouses. Each party should understand its rights and obligations. Marriage, as described and clarified in the Holy Quran, is the accommodation of the couple. Allah Almighty says in his noble book: “And among His marvels is that by a special creation did He evolve from you and of your own kind mates to form the complement to you as your counterparts in whom you seek consolation and find comfort, and between you both He implanted affection and mercy. These are tokens emblematic indeed of Allah’s Omnipotence and Authority that are observed by people who ponder.” (Al Rum: 21)

If the continuation of the marital relationship is not possible, and it reaches the extent of divorce, we must observe and consider these divine controls, which are contained in the following verses of the Holy Qur’an:

(1)- “O you the Prophet; instruct the believers thus; «If you should divorce women, you can only dissolve your marriage contract in accordance with the principles ordained by Allah: You must not divorce them during their courses, nor in between the courses if you have had congress with them during that space of time, nor until you have made sure whether they are pregnant or not; this gives chance for reconciliation. And pay careful attention to computing and reckoning the interval prescribed lest the divorcee, pregnant or non pregnant, should miss her chance should she wish to remarry. And regard Allah, your Creator, and entertain the profound reverence dutiful to Him”

(2)- “And do not drive them out of their homes nor should they themselves depart there from before the conclusion of the set period unless they have committed a proven immoral act». These are the limiting provisions prescribed by Allah; and he who goes beyond them will have wronged himself”.

(3)- “You do not know; perhaps Allah henceforth induces changes and circumstances them after His own manner”. (Al Talaq: 1)

(4)- “When the set period is near fulfillment, you either hold together in honour and in each other’s regard crowned with equity, or part in honour and equity. In either case you must bring two of your people, who are known to recourse to general principles of justice, who lift to Allah their inward sight, to bear witness to the final decision and resolution, be it divorce or reunion”.

(5)- “And those of your women who have renounced the hope of experiencing their menstrual courses again, and you are in doubt of the date or of the nature of the discharge, then they have to wait for a set period of three months. A similar set period is obligatory to those who have not yet experienced these periodic courses”.

(6)- “As for those who are in process of gestation, their set period accords with the duration of the pregnancy and ends when they have been relieved of their burden” (Al Talaq: 4)

(7)- “Let them live where you live or else in the equivalent thereof in accordance with your means”

(8)- “And do not treat them contemptuously nor restrain them nor restrict them in order to force them into a course of action that is profitable to you”.

(9)- “If they are carrying your seed in their wombs, you must support their state in life by expenditure until they are disburdened of what they carry in their wombs”.

(10)- “If they suckle and nurse your child at the breast, then you must pay them for the service rendered”

(11)- “And counsel together in each other’s regard crowned with equity. If you should encounter difficulties, financial or organic, then the child may be nursed at the breast of another”. (Al Talaq: 6)

(12)- “Everyone of pecuniary resources must spend according to his means, and he who is of wanting means to produce the comforts of life shall spend in accordance with what Allah has given him. Allah imposes upon no soul or on anyone the tribute of spending but within the limitations of what He has given him; and behind an instance of hardship, Allah will bring relief”. (Al Talaq: 7)

(13)- “Should you have an uneasy sense of the probability of an unjust action against the orphans’ interest consequent on volition stronger than your own viz. And you may join in wedlock with as many as two, three, or four of other women of your choice, with the proviso of observing Islamic principles. But if you fear you shall not be able to exercise justice among this many, then do not marry more than one, or you may adopt, under the circumstances” (Al Nisaa 3)

(14)- “And give the women, whom you join in wedlock. their dower with good will. But if they -the women- willingly remit a part thereof of their own accord, then you may eat it into your hearts and enjoy it; may it give you pleasure; may it do you good”! (Al Nisaa 4)

(15)- “And those of your women who commit themselves to acts of sexual immorality shall be punished on the credit of four witnesses of your men (co-religionists) who are known to recourse to general principles of justice. Should these men attest to the truth of the act, then confine them indoors (or in-doors) until death claims them or until Allah ordains for them a special providence” (Al Nisaa 15)

General provision included in the Family Law and marital relations:

(16) “O you who have conformed to Islam women are not a property to be inherited against their will following the death of their husbands; you are forbidden to copy this pagan custom, nor are you allowed to ill treat them to force them to give up a part of the dower or of the property you have given them, unless they have been proven guilty of an evil line of conduct. And you must live with them in equity and honour according to the manner and the Islamic laws of matrimony. And should you take to them so much dislike; it may happen that you dislike something whereby Allah makes all grace abound”. (Al Nisaa 19)

(17)- “Men are the tutelary guardians of women’s interests and welfare by consequence of, the inherent constitutional qualities and attributes Allah has invested in one, above the other, and by virtue of the expenditure they incur”.

(18)- “Virtuous women are obedient and’ responsible, morally accountable for their deeds and capable of fulfilling an obligation and trust in their husbands’ absence; virtues that accord well with divine principles”.

(19)- As to those of them whom you consider pervasive and you have a cause to fear, you simply exhort them and urge them by kind words to laudable conduct. Should they turn a deaf ear then absent yourselves from their society in bed. If they still sleep in the bed they have made, then beat them. But if they submit to your good will at any stage and surrender themselves to correction, then do not crush their feelings, their minds or their spirits; nor keep them under tyrannical exercise of power or burden them with cruel and unjust impositions or restraints; Allah is ever the Unique Whose attributes belong to the highest regions of thought and reality, the Unique Who is ever eminently entitled to the designation: The Supreme”. (Al Nisaa 34)

(20)- “And if you suspect a breaking of union or continuity between them or impending ruptured relations, then you may choose an arbitrator from his (husband’s) side and an arbitrator from her (wife’s) side, to whom both parties agree to refer their claims, in order to obtain an equitable decision. Should they both (man and wife) be willing to reconcile their differences and quarrels, then Allah shall reconcile them with their own hearts and make sympathy of love unite their thoughts; Allah has always been ‘Alimun, and Khabirun (well acquainted with all that you are doing)”. (Al Nisaa 35)

(21)- “And if a woman be apprehensive about her husband’s ill treatment and she fears his aversion and cruelty or desertion, they incur no blame should they reconcile their quarrel and reconcile themselves with their own hearts and with Allah, for, the action of reconciling persons is consistent with piety. What prejudice the minds are greed or cupidity and non-admission of a point claimed in argument or of conceding anything asked or required. But if you turn your thoughts on moral excellence and benevolence and entertain the profound reverence dutiful to Allah, you shall find that Allah has always been Khabirun of all that you do”. (Al Nisaa 128)

(22)- “You shall never be able to do equity and justice to women in case of plurality of wives however much you wish, in good conscience, to do so. Therefore, do not disincline yourselves altogether from any of them acting upon your volition or upon a stronger volition than your own to keep her in suspense and mental anguish. And if you set estranged persons at one again and bring them back into concord and entertain the profound reverence dutiful to Allah, you shall find that Allah has always been ever Ghafurun and Rahimun”. (Al Nisaa 129)

(23)- “And should they decide to separate and bring to an end their conjugal cohabitation, then Allah shall make them independent of each other. He will compensate to each of them out of His bounty which flows freely and abundantly from the fountains of His grace what has been lost. Great, is Allah the Creator; He has always been Wasi’un (Omnipresent), His mercy is vast and Hakimun, His wisdom infinite”. (Al Nisaa 130)

(24)- “O you who believe with faithful hearts, a prescriptive rule for retaliation is decreed for you to observe in the case of wilful murder as thus: a free man enjoying civil liberty for a free man enjoying civil liberty, a servant divested of freedom and personal rights for a slave with identical circumstances, a woman for a woman of the same social position. But if a brother (co-religionist) is in a position to forgive, then forgiveness should go hand in hand with sound Judgement and the demands should be agreeable to reason as judged appropriate to the circumstances. And the blood guilty should answer the demand in good will, with liberality and generosity. This is an admission of relaxation advanced by Allah, your Creator, in mercy to you. But he who transgresses thereafter shall be put to the torment”. (Al Baqara 130)

(25)- “They ask you, O Muhammad, for information relative to women’s menstruation and whether sexual congress is permissible in its duration. Say to them: «It is an unwholesome phase in the woman’s menstrual cycle fraught with systemic changes including personality alteration and a general decrease in resistance to disease. Therefore, leave women alone during menstruation and do not approach them until they are clear of it and have cleansed. When once they are ritually conditioned, you may feel free to approach them in the manner Allah has ordained. Allah likes those who in lowliest plight repentant stand and those who free themselves of physical, moral and spiritual defilement”. (Al Baqara 222)

(26)- “Your wives are where you cultivate your crop of posterity; they are your field wherein you cultivate mutual affection and emotion directed to attaining pleasure or satisfaction, therefore, till your tilth virtuously as you will and advance piety toward future security and revere Allah. And realise that you are destined to be in His August Presence Hereafter, and announce blissful tidings, O Muhammad, to those touched by the divine hand”. (Al Baqara 223)

(27)- “Allah has heard the allegation of the woman who has reported her husband to you as having wronged her, and urges a prayer appealing to Allah for mercy. Allah hears the series of statements by both of you intended to establish an edict. Allah is Sami’un and Bassirun (hears and sees all in all). (Al Mujadalah 1)

(28)- “Those of you who use the diction “mother’s back” as a symbol of the Forbidden in their formula for dissolving their marriages must know that their wives are not their mothers; their mothers are those who gave birth to them; they express what is indeed profane and utter falsehood, but Allah is ‘Afuwun (Clement) and Ghafurun (Forgiving) of all in all”. (Al Mujadalah 2)

(29)- “And those of you who have used this diction of « mother’s back » in dissolving their marriages and now wish to take back their statements and resume their marriage ties, incur the liability. of freeing a slave before touching’ their wives. This is a reproach against you to warn you of such an act, and Allah is well acquainted with your conditions and with all that you do”. (Al Mujadalah 3)

(30)- “And he, who does not have the means to do so, will have to fast by way a penitence for two successive months (dawn to sunset) before touching his wife, and if he is unable to fast, he may feed sixty indigent persons with desire and intention of amendment and repentance; this is to make you believe in Allah and His Messenger with hearts impressed with the image of religious and spiritual virtues. These are the limitations imposed by Allah; and those who deny Him shall be destined to suffer a condign punishment”. (Al Mujadalah 4)

(31)- “Divorce is permissible only twice, if each time both parties think they can reconcile with their hearts and with Allah. There and then they shall have to hold together in equity or else part in kindness”.

(32)- “But if you decide on divorce, then you are forbidden to reclaim what you gave them of dower or gifts unless you fear obstinacy against Allah’s ordinances”

(33)- “then you are absolved if she wishes to buy her freedom. These are the limitations imposed by Allah, and those who transgress them are wrongful”. (Al Baqara 229)

(34)- “If he happens to divorce her and reclaim her twice and then divorces her again a third time, then he has no right to reclaim her in wedlock, that is if they both are so inclined, before joining another man in wedlock. If the second husband willingly divorces her, then and only then, are they absolved to reunite in wedlock if they both believe they are able to honour the limitations imposed by Allah. These are the limitations imposed by Allah; He clearly explicates them to those who reflect”.