The question was direct. "Do you know anyone who can perform Halala (a pagan practice that forces a divorced woman to sleep with another man if her previous husband wants to take her back) ?" Shocked as I was, I once again asked him to repeat the question. His words did not change. So you want me to play a pimp? I asked him. "What", he questioned.
Yes, you heard me right? "You want me to play a pimp in God's name and find a man who can sleep with the women divorced by her husband so that she could be divorced again to sleep with her original husband in a divinely sanctioned manner?"
"You want her to act as a prostitute for one night and expect her husband to wait for the morning when the new husband after sleeping with her would divorce her so that he could sleep with her again. And you think this is what would please God, almighty who calls him the just God."
This is what we are told by our scholars here in America and there in our back home countries.
"So you are telling me that God directs a woman to sleep with another man because her husband made a mistake by pronouncing divorce three times either in one sitting or in three separate sittings." He probably might have given a wrong message in the Quran when he told the believers that no one would carry the other's burden. I further explained. Should she be humiliated in the name of faith for the wrongs of her husband? It is neither logical nor rational nor human.
This is not an imaginary discussion. It is what many people have discussed with me over the years. It is what I hear from many Muslim clerics who describe scores of incidents where they helped the distraught husband reunite with his wife. They believe that they pleased God and the husband by facilitating her having intercourse with a stranger. They call it devotion to God. His feelings are no concern to them. Her body is owned by them to decided the atonement of her husband's mistake?
These are the religious and dedicated men to help a husband mind sleeping with the wife of someone else, who wrongfully uttered the most dreaded words in the Muslim family system and how caring they are to divest their holy energy in keeping the spirit of the faith alive?
The Prophet described those who perform the Halala and enforce it as the worst of human beings; the practice is presented in God's name by those who claim to follow the Quran and the messenger who introduced them to the Quran.
It is an inhumane practice and has nothing to do with divine guidance. It is barbaric and rooted in ideas that treat women nothing but as an object of sexual pleasure. The persistence of this practice in Muslim society speaks of the corruption that is prevalent in religious circles.
Halala is non-Islamic, and it should never be associated with the divine guidance because it is the antithesis of human decency and divine grace.
The Quran does not prescribe it, and the Prophet opposed it very strongly. The Quran explains a few untoward situations in family relations in surah Baqara, (chapter two, verse 229 and 230). It says that when the dissolution of marriage occurs for the first time, the parties could make it final or resume their marital relationship. If the husband divorces again after the resumption, then the parties can finalize the dissolution or resolve their difference once again. However, if the divorce occurs the third time, the ending is final unless certain conditions occur.
If the woman married someone else and the marriage ended following the divorce rules, then the previous husband may approach her with a marriage proposal. She would decide to accept or reject it because a marriage is not considered valid without the woman's consent.
She is not a property at the disposal of jurists. She has an independent personality.
Where does the Quran say that a one night stand is God's will to have wife go through the ordeal of sleeping with another man so that she could re-join the previous husband who could not control his anger? Where does the Quran say that religious clerics should also act as a pimp?
This practice is rooted in a divorce concept that gives men the arbitrary power to decide the fate of his wife with whom he shared the vows of staying for life and living with love and mercy. That concept is also un-Islamic, yet many Muslim clerics refuse to acknowledge the supremacy of the Quran over their schools of thought, who developed a juristic position based on their circumstances.
Let us hope that the evil practice comes to an end in our lifetime so that we do not become an accomplice in this crime against God and His creation.