Solemnisation of marriage: Keynotes from the Shari’ah (III)

BISMILLAHI Rahmon Roheem.

Islam permits Muslims the freedom to make decisions on matrimony in the event of challenges that seem intractable with time and patience. Shari’ah enjoins Muslims to be diligent, patient and prayerful in the face of very serious afflictions – when the chips are down and painful decisions need to be taken by the husband or the wife.

The Shari’ah enjoins the man whose wife is afflicted with a challenging condition, for example, to be paid some percentage from the Soddaaqi which he paid to the woman. The husband is required to forgo the balance of the total Soddaaqi as a kind of gift because the husband must have had sexual experience with the sick woman at a prior time. Once this condition is fulfilled, the husband shall hand over the woman back to her parents. (Bahjatu, Volume 1, p.314).

Patience and perseverance are great virtues Muslims must strive to exhibit in difficult times. However, the Shari’ah prescribes a minimum of one year and four months as waiting period for the husband after which he may proceed to initiate the process of ‘talaq’, the Sunnah of marriage divorce of a woman in Islam.

In the event of a husband becoming impotent to a degree such that the wife has persevered in the hope that the man’s condition might improve but did not. Shari’ah prescribes that the woman should hold on for the man for a period of one year and three months of partial seclusion and restriction (semblance of Islamic widowhood), after which the woman is allowed by Sunnah to legitimately marry another man.

In the case of a married man being declared missing (and presumably dead with the passage of time), Shari’ah obliges the wife to hold on for the man for four years after which a qadi, a Shari’ah judge shall pronounce a three-month period of partial seclusion and restriction. With this over, it shall become legitimate for the woman to be remarried by another suitor.

Shari’ah prescribes that property and estate of a missing person who is a Muslim must be put on hold by pious and trust-worthy family member(s) for a period until none of the missing person’s known contemporaries would be alive anymore. The property may then be administered according to the dictates of the Islamic law.

One other area that should be addressed altogether from the perspective of the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW) is the case of a Muslim who may be one way or the other challenged either by nature or by accident. These may range from blindness and loss of limbs to dumbness, deafness and speech defect. There are other common ailments such as malaria, typhoid, cough, intestinal disorder and migraine. There are also terminal health conditions like blood pressure-related diseases, cancerous diseases and diabetes. Shari’ah encourages men and women to bear it all with their partners in wedlock.

The Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW) is that they should remain prayerful, faithful and hopeful for the mercy and Rahma of Allah (SWT). The needed medical care should be sought. Conventional medicine, sunnatic medicine or herbal medicine are all permissible once the procedures are not Haram. Both therapeutic and psychological support must be readily rendered affectionately by partners in marriage. Talaq is absolutely not an issue to be considered in the cases that have been mentioned here. Relatives are expected to support the efforts of the husband and the wife when they find themselves in any of these situations. With steadfastness, Allah (SWT) shall grant relief to the sick. Aamin.