Question
A Muslim lawyer who claims to be an authority of the Shariah and of MMB (Muslim Marriage Bill) says that: * It is permissible for the husband to divorce his wife during her state of haidh or nifaas. * The divorced woman according to the Shariah has to pay half the bills of her infant. The father is required to pay half. * It is not the obligation of the father to provide accommodation for the child while he/she is in the mother's custody because the ex-wife is entitled to maintenance and accommodation only for the Iddat period. * The woman is not entitled to any expenses during the breast-feeding period of two years. (If this is true, how must she survive if her time has to be devoted to the care and upbringing of the child?) * This lawyer further advised the divorcee to give the baby to the father. In this way she will be ridding herself of the "baggage". This is a reference to the baby with whom the mother refuses to part. He also alleges that MMB will solve problems of this nature.
Answer
Whoever this secular lawyer may be, he is a jaahil. What he knows of the Shariah is dangerous. He has spoken pure rubbish. It is haraam for a man to issue Talaaq during his wife's state of haidh or nifaas notwithstanding the validity of the Talaaq. It is utterly baseless to claim that the mother has to pay half the bills. The father of the child has to incumbently pay all the expenses for the child. It is the incumbent duty of the father to provide accommodation for his child. Does he expect the mother and child to seek accommodation in some squatter camp? It appears that this lawyer's brains and heart are welded to money. He must have been speaking all this rubbish in favour of his client, the father. The mother is entitled to remuneration for breast-feeding and caring for the child. If she is not remunerated, and is therefore compelled to seek employment, who will care for the baby? Since the interests of the baby compels her to remain at home, she has to be remunerated to enable her to survive and devote herself and her time to the care and upbringing of the child.
How can MMB solve a problem of this nature? There is no solution for this issue in MMB or in any other law. The solution is only the Shariah. When Muslims refuse to submit to the Shariah, the consequences are hardship, misery and heartache. As we have mentioned, this man has no Shar'i understanding. He is a secular lawyer whose objective is the monetary goal. It is for this reason he could afford to be so audacious to scandalously remark that the baby is "baggage". When a man describes the Amaanat which Allah Ta'ala bestows to a woman with the derisive term "baggage", it speaks volumes for the degenerate state of his Imaan. Neither MMB nor any other law of the land has a solution for this type of problem. The only solution is the Shariah, and that too if the parties have the fear of Allah in their hearts and the accountability in the Divine Court in their brains.
- Source
- themajlis.co.za
- Published in
- The Majlis Vol 21 No 05
- PDF page
- 12
Appears under Questions and Answers (approximate).