1. When the husband divorces his wife or their nikâh is annulled through khula’, zihâr, ’îlâ’ or any other way, or the husband passes away – then in all these cases the woman has to remain in a house for a certain period of time. As long as this period does not expire, she cannot go to any other place nor can she marry another person. Once this period expires, she can do whatever she wishes. This period of waiting is known as ‘iddah.
When a woman’s husband disappears or goes missing and it is not known whether he is alive or dead, then such a woman cannot enter into a second marriage. Instead, she should remain waiting in the hope that her husband will return. When she remains waiting until such a time that her husband must have reached 90 years of age, we will give the ruling that he must have passed away by now. Based on this, if a woman is still young and she wishes to remarry, she must wait until her husband’s age must have reached 90, thereafter she must complete her ‘iddah, and then she can enter into a second marriage. However, the condition for this is that the ruling that her first husband must have passed away by now will have to be passed by a Shar’î judge.
When the husband accuses his wife of adultery or rejects a particular child as being his own child, then both the husband and wife have to go to a Shar’î judge. The judge will ask both of them to take an oath. First, the husband will take the following oath: “I make Allah my witness and say that I am speaking the truth with regard to the act for which I have accused her.” He should take this oath four times. The fifth time he must say: “If I am lying, may Allah’s curse descend upon me.”
1. The kaffârah for zihâr is the same as that which was mentioned for fasting. There is no difference between the two. We have mentioned these masâ’il in detail in Part Three of Bahishti Zewar. Please refer to them. A few necessary matters which were not mentioned previously will be mentioned here.
1. A person says to his wife: “You are equal to my mother.”,”To me, you are equal to my mother”, “According to me, you are equal to my mother”, “According to me, now you are similar to my mother or like my mother”. In all the above cases, look at the intention of the person and what did he mean by these words. If he meant that she is similar or equal to his mother in respect and piety or that she is absolutely old just like his mother, equal in age to her, etc. then there will be nothing wrong in saying all these things and no rule will be enforced. Similarly, if he did not intend anything at the time of uttering these words or did not mean what he said but merely blurted these words out, even then no rule will be enforced.
1. If it is not possible to bring about any conciliation between husband and wife and the husband even refuses to divorce her, it is permissible for the wife to give some money or her mahr to her husband and tell him to let her go in exchange for that money. Alternatively, she could ask him to let her go in exchange for the mahr that he is still owing her. In answer to her request, the husband says: “I let you go.” In saying so, one talâqul bâ’in takes place. The man does not have the right to keep her back or to revoke his divorce.
1. A person takes an oath and says: “I swear by Allah that I will not engage in sexual intercourse”, “I swear by Allah that I will never have sex with you”, “I take an oath that I will not have sex with you.” Alternately, he takes an oath that is similar in meaning to the above-mentioned oaths. The rule with regard to this is that if he does not engage in sexual intercourse with her, talâqul bâ’in will take place on the expiry of four months. Without remarrying, they cannot live as husband and wife. But if the husband breaks his oath within four months and has sexual intercourse with his wife, divorce will not take place. However, he will have to pay the kaffârah for breaking his oath. In the Sharî‘ah, such an oath is called ’îlâ’ (which literally means “oath”).
1. When the husband issues one or two divorces that are raj’î, he has the choice or right to revoke such a divorce before the expiry of the wife’s ‘iddah. In such a case, there is no need to renew the nikâh. The woman has no choice in this matter – he can revoke the divorce irrespective of whether she agrees or not. But if he issues three divorces, he has no choice of revoking the divorce as explained previously.
1. While a person was sick, he divorced his wife. Prior to the expiry of her ‘iddah, he passed away. This wife of his is entitled to receive her share of inheritance from the wealth of her husband. This is irrespective of whether he issued one divorce, two or three divorces. And irrespective of whether he issued talâqur raj’î or talâqul bâ’in – she is still entitled to receive her share of the inheritance. If the husband dies after the completion of her ‘iddah, she will not receive any inheritance. Similarly, if the husband does not die from this illness, but recovers and then falls ill again, even then she will not receive any inheritance. This is irrespective of whether she had completed her ‘iddah or not.
1. Prior to marrying a woman, a person said: “If I marry you, you are divorced.” If the person happens to marry this woman, one talâqul bâ’in will take place the moment the nikâh is performed. Now, he cannot keep her without remarrying her. If he said: “If I marry you, you are divorced two times”, two talâqul bâ’in will take place. If he issued three divorces, three will take place and it will be talâqul mughallazah.
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