This article was written for a leaflet given out at the event: ‘Launch of ‘The Muslim Marriage Contract’’ hosted by City Circle on 8th August in Abrar House:
http://www.thecitycircle.com/events_full_text2.php?id=521
The New (Western) ‘Islamic’ Marriage Contract
In western culture and social theory, men and women are legally exactly equal. The actually existing differences between a man and a woman are portrayed as not different to the issue of race.
Western theory casually ignores the importance of the concepts of femininity and masculinity as key psychological actors which serve to bind a couple together in a perfect and compassionate relationship, and thus treats the issue of family as no different to a partnership of two people without gender.
Furthermore, the self-sufficient individuality and self-centred culture in the west has created a society of people which not only shirk responsibility, but actually detest it! Into this milieu, the west has created a legal system which inhumanely ignores the physical and psychological differences between and man and a woman, and consequently ignores their psychological and physical needs with regard to the opposite sex.
The west’s androgynous culture has led marriages to become scenes of power struggle, conflicting interests and disfunctionality, to such an extent that half of all marriages either end in divorce or whether a storm of infidelity, neglect and even abuse!
In line with Western legal theory on the nature of a male and female, women are not in need of protection, so they do not need to be given away by a guardian, marriages are terminable by either the male or the female at whim, and the female may be granted access to the males financial assets even though she might of initiated the divorce unjustly.
So it is conspicuous, but not coincidental, that suddenly a new marriage contract for Muslims is being devised which, under the pretext of ‘guarantying greater harmony within Muslim marriages in Britain’, uncannily resembles Western legal opinions on the issue of marriage rights.
To discuss the points in depth, orthodox Islam grants the right to women to get a divorce if her Islamic rights are breached. If this is the case, she is are allowed alimony (financial recompense from the husband). But if the woman divorces her husband on her whim (e.g. shes is bored of him etc), she is not allowed to claim alimony – as this will be an injustice on the man if he is made to pay. If the man divorces his wife on whim, he MUST pay alimony, since she has been divorced for no good reason. This is the justice of Islam that the secularists seek to unravel and change into an image pleasing to the west!
Also, orthodox Islam and every single madhab has concurred with the irrefutable textual evidence, that the woman must have a wali (guardian) to give her away, and if she has none, she may choose a reputable sheikh (under Islamic law, the Caliph was the wali to women who had none). Having a wali, acts as a protection and prevents women from being abused (aka ‘played’ to coin a western term). To remove this protection from women, opens up any woman to being vulnerable to unserious and insincere suitors and will cause serious harm to society (as is already witnessed in the west).
Islam does not believe in equality of the sexes, but rather, Islam believes in equity. It acknowledges a man’s differences and a woman’s differences, and seeks to organise them in an enlightened manner so as to bring peace and fulfillment to both, in accordance with their purpose as created human beings.
“…and the male is not like the female…” [Quran 3:36]
“Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel (physically) the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women)” [Quran 4:34]
Furthermore, how does ‘ the role Muslim women play in modern societies’ create a different human environment then has been encountered before by Muslims 1400 years ago? When woman worked, taught and became scholars of hadith! Did Islam give exceptions for the Islamic rules of marriage then? The answer, much to the dismay of ‘modernist’ (aka secularist or status quoist) Muslims, is no.
“…And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them…” [Quran 2:228]
Posted by Abdullah al Andalusi 