Can woman initiate divorce.
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
(May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked
this question:
Salamalaikum
brother
first
of all i thanks for clearifing the misconsaptions and querys of
indiviual persons.
My
query is that in islam it is said that men as the right to give divorce to his
wife if he as some problem like misunderstanding or due to some what they are
not ready to live to gather. but why wife dose not have the rigth to give
divorce to her hasband if she as problem with him because it is found that most
of the time hasband ambaries his wife ,beat her unnecessary ,have
relationship with some otherwomen, try to impose
restriction
on her, or make her life miserable.dosnt she have the rigth to give devorce
under such circumstances.
because
this query is asked many times by the non muslimes to me.tell me how to ans
them so that they can understand the true religion islam
can a
women apply for divorce and pls give me some evidences and verse of the holy
quran + hadis tell about this query
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Answer:
Can woman initiate
divorce
In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His
help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide,
and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear
witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear
witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His
Messengers.
Your
Question: …..but why wife dose not have the rigth to give divorce to her
hasband if she as problem with him
Sunan of Abu-Dawood Hadith 2173 Narrated by Abdullah ibn Umar
The Prophet (saws) said: ‘Of all the lawful
acts’ the most detestable to Allah is divorce.’
Dear and beloved sister in Islam, as much as the guidance
of Islam strives to maintain the sacred institution of marriage, if for any
reason one is unhappy in one’s marriage, or one’s rights in marriage are being
unfulfilled or usurped….both the husband and/or the wife in Islam are well
within their rights in Islam to initiate a divorce proceedings in their
marriage. Thus it is neither true nor
accurate that a woman in Islam does not have a right to divorce her husband.
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah
Baqarah verse 229:
229 A divorce is only permissible twice: after that the parties should
either hold together on equitable terms or separate with kindness. It is not lawful for you (men) to take back
any of your gifts (from your wives) except when both parties fear that they
would be unable to keep the limits ordained by Allah. If ye do indeed fear that they would be
unable to keep the limits ordained by Allah there is no blame on either of them
if she give something for her freedom. These are the limits
ordained by Allah; so do not transgress them.
If any do transgress the limits ordained by Allah such persons wrong
(themselves as well as others).
The only difference between a divorce initiated by a
husband and a wife in Islam is that if the husband intends to divorce his wife,
he has to announce his declaration of divorce, whereas the wife who seeks
divorce either asks her husband to declare a divorce upon her, or if he refuses
her request, she would have to initiate a divorce proceedings against her
husband in a Shariah Court. But without
an iota of a doubt, both parties in the marriage have a right to initiate a
divorce proceeding, if they indeed wish to do so.
One may wish to inquire the wisdom behind the guidance why
it is necessary for a wife when she seeks a divorce to either ask her husband
to pronounce divorce upon her or to go to court, when the husband has to merely
pronounce divorce when he intends to divorce his wife.
Islam has laid the complete financial burden on the
shoulders of the men, and a groom is required to bear not only the complete
cost of the wedding, the banquet, the clothing, the gifts, the jewelry, the
travel, etc. but he has to present a substantial gift ‘mehr’ determined by the
bride at the time of marriage as an absolutely obligatory condition of a
marriage in Shariah.
If the wife had been given the right to obtain divorce by
merely declaring it, there is a possibility of abuse whereby the wife could
divorce the husband the very next moment of the ‘nikaah’, thus leaving the
husband with a substantial financial loss.
Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chatper 4 Surah
Nisaa verse 20:
20 But if ye (husbands) decide to take one wife in place of another even
if ye had given the latter a whole treasure for ‘dower’ take not the least bit
of it back: would ye take it by slander and a manifest wrong?
If the wife initiates a divorce proceedings she would be
required to return the gifts and the ‘mehr’ she received from her husband; but
if the husband initiates a divorce, he has absolutely no right to demand or
take back anything he might have given his wife in the marriage, even it be a
whole treasure!....thus if the husband opts to divorce his wife, he should be
willing to bear a substantial financial loss upon himself. In this way, the rights of both the husband
and the wife are adequately protected by Islam.
If one trusts, obeys, and follows the guidance and
commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws),
one can be assured of never ever being misled; but if one believes, obeys and follows any
other guidance, other than that of Allah and His Messenger (saws), one can be
assured of being led astray.
Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only
due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me
alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is
the Only Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
Burhan