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Malaysian Minister Says Mobile Phone Divorces Disallowed
KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An adviser to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed in Malaysia on Thursday said Muslims cannot divorce their wives through short message services (SMS) on mobile phones.
Hamid Othman, the prime minister's religious adviser, said divorce declarations made using cellular phone short message service are not permissible in Malaysia, although they are acceptable under Shari'ah (Islamic) law.
Divorce declarations through SMS have received the green light from religious authorities in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.
Othman, however, decried SMS divorce messages as dangerous and irresponsible acts that should not be tolerated.
"We have adequate laws to curb rash moves by Muslim men to divorce their wives without justification," Othman said.
Earlier, a Malaysian mufti (an individual considered an Islamic authority) said SMS divorce was possible.
The Mufti of the Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory, Hisham Yahya, joined the Registrar of Singapore's Shari'ah Court, Shaiffudin Saruwan, in validating SMS divorces.
The Shari'ah Court in Singapore, however, strongly discourages the practice of pronouncing the talaq (divorce) out of court, regardless of the manner of communicating it.
Yahya was quoted as saying divorce declarations sent through SMS were valid under Islamic law and were therefore legal and binding, sparking criticism from women's groups.
However, some Arab Muslim clerics issued a Fatwa saying that such a divorce is not valid in Islam because of the lack of documentation which may lead to fraud.
Shahrizat Jalil, Women and Family Development Minister, was quoted by a Malaysian daily, The Star, as saying divorce should not be taken lightly and SMS messages were not the way to deal with the issue.
Muslim hardliners in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Singapore contacted by IslamOnline on Thursday said they disagreed that divorces via the SMS were valid according to Islamic edicts or laws.
They said that in the past cases where divorces sent in letters via the post were considered null and void for the simple reason that the divorce must be pronounced in front of the spouse.
A Malay daily newspaper had quoted mufti Hashim Yahya as saying that divorce declarations through SMS would be considered legal and binding.
Hamid urged wives who received such divorce messages to report it to the religious department to verify its authenticity and to ensure that authorities were aware of these practices.
He said steps would be taken to monitor this new phenomenon and to check divorce declarations made in such a manner. Sources in Kuala Lumpur have said, however, that there is a possibility that such divorce messages would be declared null.
Traditionally in Islam, divorce declarations must be in the presence of the wife so that the male is made to utter the words "I divorce you" in front of two witnesses and in the wife's presence. The man has to then prove the utterance in court.
Women, according to Islam, are also allowed the right to initiate a divorce.
The Pan Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) said a woman would lose her integrity if her husband were allowed to utter his divorce through SMS.
"First and foremost, marriage is a holy union, one of the highest order. We must never forget Allah entrusted marriage to both husband and wife.
"When a Muslim man marries, he takes the woman and gives her a dowry. She is given to him in the best possible manner. Therefore in return, when the marriage is no longer possible, he should return her in the same manner." Syarifah Lo'lo' Ghazali said.
Other Muslim organizations said SMS divorces were against the Qur'anic injunction that states "the couple should hold together on equitable terms [ma'ruf] or separate with kindness [ihsan]."
Nik Noriani, from "Sisters in Islam", a Malaysian women's Islamic group, said that allowing a man to divorce his wife through an SMS made it appear that Islam encouraged divorce when it was actually discouraged.
Other religious organizations and sources, however, told IslamOnline that SMS divorces in Singapore would be taken seriously only after a validation from the Shari'ah Court to make sure that the divorce declaration was done by the husband and not someone else, as well as to make sure that the husband intended to divorce his wife.
Thus, the wife who receives a divorce declaration should report it to the Shari'ah Court for it to be registered until both of them face judges.
On June 26th, an impatient man in Dubai sent a text message to his wife saying, "Why are you late? You are divorced", apparently started the issue of a Muslim making a divorce declaration via SMS.
The divorce was registered by the courts and prompted the authorities to revise conditions for Muslim divorce in the technological age.
The couple, however, is back together after a Dubai court ruled he had failed to repeat his repudiation the required three times.
Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has since allowed husbands to separate from their wives using SMS.
But Abdel-Salam Darwish, head of the family-reconciliation division of the Dubai courts, has been quoted as saying that four conditions have to be met in order for a divorce declaration to be considered valid.
"The husband should be the sender; he should have the desire to divorce her; the phrasing should be unmistakable; and the wife should receive it," he said.
Muslim scholars hosted by IslamOnline have almost unanimously agreed that a husband must not violate or abuse his right to divorce. They said a man must be patient with his wife if he sees something in her that he disapproves and dislikes.
"He should recognize that he is dealing with a human being with natural imperfections, and he should balance her good qualities with her failings. The Prophet [peace be on him] said, 'let a believing man not dislike a believing woman. If something in her is displeasing to him, another trait may be pleasing,'" a ruling in IslamOnline's fatwa bank said.
And the Holy Qur'an says, "...And consort with them in kindness, for if you dislike them, it may be that you dislike something in which Allah has placed much good." (sura 4:19)
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