350
said: "If such and such a thing happen, my wife is divorced," the actual thing referred to need only take place, in order to make the talāq a determinate fact.
This taʾlīq can be used for sundry purposes. Sometimes a Mohammedan employs it by way of an oath, saying for example to some one who doubts the truth of his words: "If I lie in this, my wife N. is divorced." Or he uses it as a threat to his wife in case of disobedience, as thus, "if you enter that house again, you are divorced."
He may, however also employ the taʾlīq to improve the position of his wife, as for instance by saying, "If I beat you, or leave you for a month without support, or forsake you for a year, then you are divorced." The husband cannot indeed be constrained to such a taʾlīq and his voluntary declaration is necessary to bestow such privileges on his wife.
At the same time, if a man asks the hand of a woman in marriage, and first undertakes, at the request of the father or wali, to make such a taʾlīq in her favour immediately after the conclusion of the wedding contract, the bridegroom considers himself so to speak morally bound by such promise. No one, it is true, would raise any legal objections if after the contract was completed he were to declare that he thought better of his intentions in regard to the talīq, but by so doing he would entirely forfeit the confidence of his acquaintance.
Such predeclared and morally compulsory taʾlīqs are to be met with everywhere. In the Indian Archipelago they are by no means rare; the husband for instance, in conformity with an agreement with his parents-in-law, declares immediately after the marriage ceremony, that his wife may regard herself as divorced by him if he marries a second, or gives her no house of her own to live in, etc. Here again, as might be expected, the great majority of bridegrooms require the assistance of the official who concludes the marriage contract for the proper expression of the formula; he dictates the words one after another to the bridegroom.
This is not peculiar to Indonesia, and is also to be found in Acheh. But throughout the whole of Java[1] and the greater part of the other
- ↑ In Van den Berg's Beginselen not only do we find no single word about this most important adat, but even the possibility of a "conditional talāq" is only barely alluded
