The second majority of India is heavily criticised and ridiculed for continuing to carry out the practice of Halala.  In other, neighbouring countries, this practice is also carried out, but no one dares say much about them.  Indian Muslims are also keeping the faith alive much more rampantly, and we hear a number of stories by women and men both, from within the community, to confirm this statement.  In other words, Indian Muslims are the best of the best Muslims for adhering to the true teachings of Quran.

Islam lays great emphasis on all things Halal (permissible, allowed).  Anything which is not Halal falls into two categories – Makrooh (non preferred, distasteful) or Haram (Must abstain from).  Haram acts are considered shirk (an extraordinary sin) which is basically defying the code of Islam, and gaining wrath of Allah and his followers. The word Halala has its roots in Halal and therefore one can imagine how important the act of carrying out Halala is.  Islam shuns divorces, has laid grounds for avoiding divorces in Quran which include

– buying the affection of your wife through money (Mehr Muwajjal – part of mehr which must be given before the first act of sex is carried out with the wife)
– distributing your high libido among more than one wives
-allowing sex with non wedded partners via slaves
– Nikah e Muttah (Shia temporary marriage)
– Nikah e Misyar (Sunni temporay marraiage)
– Love Jihad with an intention to converrting the girl and then treating her as co property

Then there is also permission to discipline the wife through acts like reprimanding verbally, stopping her sexual ‘privileges’, and finally beating her up if she doesn’t fall in line. But as Allah’s men are primarily creatures of anger, and if in this state they do commit the act of divorcing her because she dares to have an opinion, then also there is a way to reconcile, through Nikah Halala. This simply translates into getting your wife to marry someone else, waiting for the marriage to consummate. After this, as per agreement, the current husband divorces her and the previous husband re marries her.  This is the procedure via which the ex wife becomes ‘halal’ for her husband before he re marries her, but the question is, what is the procedure for the husband to become Halal? Does he also have to become the toy of a heavily tattooed, jailed for 15 years on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and sodomising minor boys for example? The answer to that is simple.  A woman becomes the ‘land to till’ for a man as soon as she is in his Nikah. The man goes through tremendous mental anguish when he has to allow his ‘tilling land’ be ploughed by another man.  He lives through this nightmare for all of those days and nights until his farming land is back with him to sow his seeds into.  This mental anguish, this huge bruise to his ego is enough penance for him to become Halal for his wife again.

This Nikah Halala can be with any random or known person with the sole purpose of the original couple getting back together after the second ‘husband’ has divorced the ‘wife’. There are numerous cases where the woman has to ‘marry’ her husband’s brother or even father for short period of time to keep it in the family and save money. Alternatively, there are many willing Imams and Molvis who are ready to carry out Nikah Halala for a fee ranging from 15,000 to 30,000. One can come across masjids and private Halala services being advertised on social media at times.

As life goes, the best laid plans can sometimes backfire in your face.  Similarly, Nikah Halala can also become a more ‘permanent’ feature in the life of the woman if Allah so decides.  If anyone has seen the film Nikah, they will remember how the heroine gets married to someone for Halala purpose after her husband divorces her in a fit of rage, but then kicks the husband’s behind and decides to remain with the ‘Halala’ husband.  In real life, there are stories of Molvis refusing to give Talaq to a particularly hot woman after sleeping with her a few times, or even the younger brother demanding that in future too, he share his Bhabi with his brother. Additionally, there is the possibility that the woman gets pregnant while in the process of Nikah Halala and then the child will always live not knowing who the real father is. Such are the complexities associated with the world’s most easy going religion.

Setting aside all the sarcasm and religious requirements, one has to wonder if this is a decent practice? How can any half decent man put a woman through so much humiliation, sadness and pain? Additionally, you will find a whole community in complete denial of this practise, claiming there is no such mention in scripture? This is because they don’t really know their own scripture, and hide behind interpretation etc.  But we should not be confused on the matter:

“And if he has divorced her [for the third time], then she is not lawful to him afterward until [after] she marries a husband other than him. And if the latter husband divorces her [or dies], there is no blame upon the woman and her former husband for returning to each other if they think that they can keep [within] the limits of Allah . These are the limits of Allah , which He makes clear to a people who know.”  2:230

Evidently, these are the ups and downs that one has to come to terms with when learning about, or living with, the world’s most easy-going faith

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