XL.—TALA′Q, OR DIVORCE.
In Islám the wife is the property of the husband, and consequently she can be disposed of by divorce at a moment's notice. The law has, however, placed certain slight restrictions upon the exercise of this right, and has ruled that there are three kinds of divorce:—
(1.) Taláq-i-Ahsan, or "the most laudable form of divorce," is when the husband divorces his wife when she is in a state of purity, by one sentence, "thou art divorced," or words to that effect. This is esteemed the best form, because the sentence having been only pronounced once, the husband can again change his mind, with the consent of his divorced wife, at any subsequent period, until she marries another.
(2.) Taláq-i-Hasan, or "a laudable form of divorce," is when the husband divorces his wife by pronouncing the sentence, "thou art divorced," during his wife's period of purity, and at intervals of a month.
(4) Taláq-i-Bidʾaí, or "an irregular form of divorce," is when the husband repeats the sentence three times on one occasion.
Whenever the sentence of divorce is repeated three times it is a Taláq-i-Mutlaq, or an irrevocable divorce, after which the husband cannot marry his repudiated wife until she has married and lived with another, and is divorced by her second husband.
In all cases of repudiation, except when a wife requests her husband to divorce her, the dower must be repaid to the woman, an arrangement which often prevents a man exercising the privilege.
The ground of divorce, under the Mosaic law, was "some uncleanness in her" (vide Deut. xxiv. 1–4), and of which there were two well-known interpretations. The school of Shammai seemed to limit it to a moral delinquency in the woman, whilst that of Hillel extended it to the most trifling causes. Our Lord appears to have confirmed the interpretation of Shammai (St. Matt. v. 32), whilst Muhammad adopted that of Hillel, but dispensing with the "bill of divorcement" enjoined by the Mosaic code, thereby placing the woman entirely at the will and caprice of her husband.