Question
I have been watching Mr Ghamidi’s programs online. I agree with his line of reasoning in most cases. Presently I need to discuss the issue of divorce. I believe Mr Ghamidi correctly disagrees with the procedure of divorce that is vogue in our society. I would appreciate very much if you can please share my following question with Mr Ghamidi as I would like to know what he has to say on this. He consistenly says during his programs and question and answer sessions that divorce that is initiated by not following the Qur’anic procedure is condemned and is even haram. If someone offers the salah without intention or without following the correct procedure than all the ulema from all sects unanimously hold that such a performance of the worship is invalid and must be repeated. Why then a divorce that is not declared in accordance with the Quranic teachings is classified as either valid (by majority of fuqaha) or at best “may be valid” as is held by Mr Ghamidi. Shouldn’t it be simply invalid? Why did Allah provide us that much details about divorce procedure in the Qur’an? In my humble opinion, any procedure that is not in accordance with the clear injunctions in the Qur’an should be treated as invalid (including divorce). Why do we say that the salah offered improperly will be invalid but divorce will still be valid? Does ahadith have a ruling authority over the Qur’an? Why do we follow ahadith on the issue of divorce when they are clearly against Qur’an?
Answer
Mr Ghamidi’s opinion is that there is no absolute ruling on wrongly given divorces in the shari‘ah. In other words, the matter is left to the discretion of the judge. Keeping in view the circumstances of a particular case of divorce he can regard wrongly given divorces as totally un-operational (eg. if a person is ignorant of the correct procedure) and there can be circumstances in which he regards it to be equivalent to one divorce (eg. if a person repeatedly abuses the procedure) and in the latter case he can even punish the perpetrators of such divorces.
Answered by: Dr. Shehzad Saleem
Date: 2015-03-07
