The draft Divorce Bill, prepared ostensibly to make the divorce process easier, is a direct attack on the Shariah and against the personal law of Indian Muslims, argued Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, national president of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), today.
In a release here, Maulana Ajmal, who is an MP from Dhubri in Assam and also a member of Majlis-e Shura of
Darul Uloom Deoband, decried the crude attempt to amend divorce laws that have stood the test of time, saying it
is contrary to the marriage and personal laws of the Indian Muslims.
The draft of the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, crafted in Maharashtra and sent to the centre, has now
received the cabinet’s stamp of approval and may shortly be presented in Parliament for its passage.
Maulana Ajmal emphasized that Muslim Personal Law provides for the safety and security of Muslim women in
all respects and there is no need to make any changes.
Right from her nubile stage to when she gets married and bears children and grandchildren, all her needs are taken
care of by her father, her husband and then her children.
She is genuinely entitled to a share of the property on the death of her husband and other relatives.
The Islam has given the wife, on having children, an eighth share of the property and on not having children, a
fourth share of the total property of the husband.
To increase her share to half will deprive her children and other heirs of their rightful share in the inheritance and this will undermine the safety and security provided by the Shariah not only to the wife, but also to the other closely related inheritors. And this is directly tempering with the Islamic law of marriage and inheritance derived from the Qur’an and Sunnah, he said.
If the draft bill is passed, the amendment proposes to provide women with a share of their husband’s property, if they opt for divorce. It also seeks to give adopted children the same rights as biological children.
According to Maulana Ajmal, if women after divorce, are allowed a half share of their husband’s properties, it
will let the proverbial jinn out of the bottle. This will open the door for conspiracies, greed and personal
enrichment at the cost of the husband and a situation might be created that might make it easy for the woman to
divorce her husband and grab share of her property.
It must be borne in mind that as a householder, the man has not only to take care of his wife and children, but
even in some cases his maternal and paternal grandparents, including brothers and sisters.
It is easy for even a primary student of psychology to understand that this move would disturb the
husband-and-wife equation in the house, and the wife, on the slightest pretext, can insist on a divorce.
The Maulana emphatically asserted that India’s constitution has given adequate protection to Muslim
Personal Law and the proposed amendment is another attempt to damage its edifice.
It is unfortunate that after the defeat in the recent elections and being assailed from all sides, the UPA is
weak at Centre as well as in Maharshtra, he said.
Proposing a Bill like this amounts to trying to enter into one more dangerous territory, and any nationwide
protest may wipe out the remnants of its tattered political raiment.
Muslims, ulema and intellectuals will not take this deleterious move lying down and will try to oppose it
tooth and nail, right from the halls of parliament down to the streets, he said.
“I will oppose this Bill with all possible means and would also write to President Patibha Patil, UPA
chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh citing Muslims complete disagreement on the proposed
Bill,” said the AIUDF president added.
