WEDDINGS

A wedding contract in the Arab world is more a legal act than a religious sacrament. It has various rights and obligations, as well as legal arrangements for inheritance of property.

All legal consequences related to getting married are written in the Koran and are still respected up to date today. For example, marriages between cousins are perfectly acceptable. (interesting fact – in Lebanon, civil weddings are not allowed, only religious ones)

Voluntary celibacy is not well received in the Muslim community, but women are in more more convinient situation in this field. A lonely woman is better off than a lonely man. Why? A man is required to have a family, to have a wife and children, and to have a home. It is culturally conditioned.

DIVORCES

Islam considers this act as an unacceptable, and by allowing divorce it accepts that a ban on the separation of estranged spouses would cause a lot of sorrow, because disagreement between husband and wife prevent happy life, and this is what a Muslim marriage is supposed to be.

“The most hated thing by Allah that is permitted to man – is divorce.”

Talak (طلاق) – the basic term to define divorce in Islamic law. In the Koran law, a marriage can be dissolved for three reasons:

TIME LAPSE

A marriage can be arranged for a certain period of time. The condition is that such information must be included in the marriage contract (a contract can contain a lot of marriage guidelines).

APOSTASY

If one of the spouses renounces their faith or completely changes their religion, the marriage can be dissolved more easily.

DIVORCE

Divorce is difficult to obtain and sometimes it even comes with restrictions on estranged spouses. The cause of divorce might be difficult, toxic domestic relationships, what prevent a peaceful life.

According to Islamic law, a decision to divorce can be made by a woman and a man, but a divorce on the initiative of a man is simpler and does not require many formalities. On the other hand, dissolving a marriage at the request of a woman is more complicated and confusing. Differences in the level of difficulty in divorce is based on gender. It is explained by Islam that a woman is not financially liable as a result of the dissolution of the marriage.

Idda (العدة) – This is the period after the divorce (or after the death of her husband) when a woman cannot get along with anyone. العدة lasts three months and is used to dispel doubts about possible pregnancy and paternity.

CHILDCARE AFTER DIVORCE

The dissolution of marriage breaks the relationship between a man and a woman, but does’t end a parenthood which lasts whole and is valid whole life. As a result of parents’ divorce, children suffer the most, because of breaking the established order. Additionally, family breakdown destroys the sense of security and stability among children. In Islam, as in all legal and religious systems, the best interest of the child is the most important. The conditions of childcare on the off chance that divorce may be written in the marriage contract, but most often the father is pointed to raise children. It is argued for an old tradition in which a woman was unable to raise her children alone. Even when the care of the chlidren has been entrusted to one parent, contact between the child and the other parent cannot be prevented or banned. In order to improve the popular opinion that a father would take away children from a mother after a divorce, Islam emphasizes that a woman has ability to raise children because she can take care of them best, and that a woman’s most important mission is to raise her children well. To emphasize this law, the words of Muhammad are quoted.

“Whoever separates a mother from her child, Allah will separate him from his loved ones on the day of the Last Judgment.”

However, this optimistic law depends on the age of the children. The mother may take care of her son until she is seven years old and her daughter up to the age of ten. The longer care for the girl exercised by the mother is to introduce her to the world of women’s habits. Muslim law states that upon reaching this age, a child has the right to choose which parent he or she wishes to stay with, based on the words of the Prophet.

“This is your father, and this is your mother, take the hand of one of them.”