AFTER DIVORCE

The question immediately after divorce is of ways and means to meet one’s necessary expenses. One’s answer is to resort to the Islamic law of inheritance. If women were to be given their due share according to Islamic law, there would be no question of a woman becoming destitute. But, sad to say, the majority of Muslim women fail to get their due share of inheritance from their deceased fathers and husbands as stipulated by Islamic law. This would be more than enough to meet such emergencies if they could do so.

However, Islam has not just left women’s financial problems to the vagaries of inheritance because parents are not invariably in possession of property that can be divided among their children. Further arrangements have been made under the maintenance law, but this has no connection with divorce law. Therefore, the answer to this question must be sought in the Islamic maintenance law. Here, we shall briefly describe some of its aspects:

1. In case the divorced woman is childless or the children are not earning, according to Islamic law, the responsibility for her maintenance falls on her father. That is, her situation will be the same as before marriage.

To quote from Fath al-Qadir (A standard book on Islamic Law):

“The Father is responsible for bearing his daughter's expenses until her marriage if she has no money. The father has no right to force her to earn, even if she can. When the girl is divorced and the period of confinement is over, her father shall again bear her expenses.” (Ibn Hummam, Fath al-Qadir ala al-Hidayah, Vol. 4, p. 410)

2. If the divorced woman has a son who is an earning family member, the responsibility for her maintenance falls entirely upon him.

All that rightfully belongs to a wife will be the duty of the son to provide, that is, food, drink, clothes, house, and even servants, if possible. (Ibn ‘Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar ‘ala ad-Durr al-Mukhtar, Vol. 2, p. 733)

3. In the case of the father being deceased, and where even her children cannot earn, her nearest relatives, such as brothers or uncles, are responsible for her upkeep. Without even this third form, the Islamic Shariah holds the State Treasury (baitul mal) responsible for bearing her expenses. She will be entitled to receive the money for her necessities.

Because of the number of provisions made under Islamic law for women, it has never been the case in Islamic history that Muslim divorced women have been cast adrift, helpless, with no one to look after them.

Indian columnist Khushwant Singh has remarked that we do not hear of Muslim women committing suicide or being tortured like Hindu women, which is proof that Islam has already given them adequate liberty and has made enough provision for them to be supported in times of emergencies.

A new dimension has been added to the issue since the women of this day and age can leave their homes to work and are, therefore, not as entirely dependent on men as they used to be in the past: there is no need then to make laws which provide for them at the expense of their menfolk. What is the point in making such a law when earning like men? Only in exceptional cases, indeed, do they need to be looked after, and ways and means of doing so can generally be worked out satisfactorily on a personal level.