The Book of Divorce Wholly or Partly Instigated by the Wife (khul'a and mabarat)
Khul'a and mabarat are two types of ba'in divorce. A khul'a divorce is a divorce motivated due to the wife being dissatisfied with the marriage and giving the husband something or by releasing him from all or part of the mehr [5] so as to persuade him to divorce her. In this case, just by the man divorcing his wife, he is disqualified from returning to her, unless she wants to take back what she ceded, in which case the man has the right to return to her.
Mabarat is also a type of ba'in divorce, like khul'a with the difference that both parties are dissatisfied with the marriage, while the wife still gives the husband a sum to divorce her. The other difference is that the given sum in khul'a divorce has no specified limit, but in mabarat it is a condition that the sum be not more than the amount of the mehr.
The Book of Illegal Divorce (zahar)
In the "ignorance" of pre-Islamic Arabia, zahar was a kind of divorce consisting of the husband saying to the wife anti 'aliya kazohriammi, i.e., "You are like the rear of my mother to me." And this was quite enough for the wife to be recognised as divorced. Islam changed this. In the view of Islam, zahar is not divorce. For a man to recite this contract to his wife is forbidden, and he must pay a fine (kafarah). Until he pays the fine it is forbidden for him to have sexual intercourse with the wife. The fine of zahar is the freeing of a slave, or, if not possible, fasting each day for two consecutive months, or, if this is not possible, the feeding of sixty poor people.
The Book of Vows of Abstention (Iyl'a)
Iyl'a is a general word meaning oath, but in jurisprudence it has a special meaning, which is that in order to annoy his wife, a man recites a contract swearing that he will not have sexual intercourse with her ever again or for a fixed period (four months or more). If the wife protests to the Hakim Shari'ah, he will oblige the man to one of two things: break the vow or divorce his wife. If the man breaks his vow, he must, of course, pay the fine. To break a vow is always forbidden but in these circumstances it is obligatory.
The Book of Cursing (l'aan)
L'aan is again related to the marital affairs of man and wife. It means their cursing of each other, and it applies to a situation wherein the husband accuses his wife of immorality, meaning here adultery or lesbianism.
If someone accuses a woman of the said immorality and cannot produce four just witnesses, the punishment of falsely accusing is to be carried out upon that person himself, and the same applies if a man accuses his wife. Now, if the man accuses his wife and cannot produce four witnesses, then rather than punish him, something else can be done. What can be done is called l'aan. If this takes place, however, although he is no longer subject to the other punishment, his wife becomes forbidden to him forever.
L'aan takes place in front of the Hakim Shari'ah. As we said before, l'aan is a way in which the two parties curse each other. It takes place like this: first the man stands up in front of the Hakim and says four times, "God is my witness, I am truthful in my claim." The fifth time he says, "God curse me if I lie in my claim." The woman then stands up in the presence of the Hakim and says four times, "I call God as a Witness that in his claim he is a liar." The fifth time she says, "The Anger of God be upon me if in his claim he is truthful."
The Book of Freeing (itq)
Freeing means the freeing of slaves. In Islam a series of legislatures has been introduced about slaves. Other than the making of slaves of captives taken in war, Islam considers no other form of slavery as legitimate. Furthermore, the aim of taking slaves in Islam is not to profit from them, rather it is for them to stay for a period in the homes of genuine Muslims and come to understand the Islamic teachings. This, all by itself, would draw them to the appreciation and acceptance of Islam and its sublime teachings. In reality, this form of slavery is the passage between the slavery of disbelief (kufr) and the freedom of Islam. So the aim is not that slaves remain slaves forever, the aim is for them to fully discover the Islamic teachings and their liberating effect, and earn the real, spiritual freedom in the freedom of society. Therefore, freedom after slavery is the aim of Islam.
Islam has provided many systems of itq. Because the goal of Islam is freeing and not enslaving, the jurisprudents have titled the book dealing with slavery the Book of Freeing and not the Book of Enslaving.
The Book of Acquiring Freedom through Will, by Purchase and Through Relationship (Tadbir, mukatibeh and istilad)
Tadbir, mukatibeh and istilad are three of the ways in which slaves are freed. Tadbir is that the owner stipulates in his will that after his death his slave is free. Mukatibeh is that a slave settles an agreement with his owner that by paying a sum (or agreeing to pay a sum in the future) he will become free. In the Quran it has been stipulated that if such an application is made by a slave in whom good is discerned, meaning that belief is discerned in them, (or that it is discerned that they can manage themselves and not become helpless), not only is the application to be accepted but they are also to be given capital from their owners' wealth.
Istilad concerns a slave woman who is made pregnant by her owner. Such a woman, when the owner dies, definitely becomes part of the inheritance, a part of which is inheritated by her child, and since no one can be the slave of one's parents, grandparents and so on up, or children and grandchildren and so on down, she automatically becomes free.
Similarly, there are many other ways slaves become free, such as a slave being afflicted by blindness and so on; as the kafarah (fine) of various sins, one of the forms of which, as we have seen, is freeing a slave; being freed by someone simply to please God; and others, and these are generally discussed in the Book of Freeing.
The Book of Confessing (iqrar)
Iqrar is related to the Islamic laws of arbitration. One of the means by which a case is proved against a person is the person's own confession. If, for example, a person claims that he is owed something by a second person, he must produce evidence or testimony, and, if he does not, his claim is rejected. Should, however, the second person himself confess to the debt, this confession renders evidence and testimony unnecessary. Confession is accepted only from sane adults.
The Book of Reward (ja'alah)
Reward in its essence is similar to the hiring of people. In hire, however, a specific person is hired to do a specific work in return for a specific sum, whereas in reward no certain person is hired. Instead, the hirer simply announces that whoever does a certain work for him (like finding his missing child, for example) will be paid a certain sum as a reward.
The Book of Vows (ayman)
If a person swears to do a certain thing, the doing of that which he has sworn to do becomes obligatory for him. One condition is that the vow is in the Name of God. Therefore, a vow made in the name of the Prophet or of an Imam or the Quran, is not binding on him according to the Divine Law. Another condition is that what he vows to do is ruled as permissable in the Shari'ah, so a vow to do something that is ruled as forbidden (haram) or repulsive (makruh), is meaningless and not at all binding. A legitimate vow would be like one swearing to study a certain beneficial book from beginning to end, or swearing to brush one's teeth at least once a day. The breaking of such a vow necessitates a fine (kafarah).
The Book of Taking an Oath (nathr)
Nathr is a type of undertaking to do something that involves an oath but no special contract. If, for example, one makes an oath to pray all the daily nafilah prayers, i.e. the encouraged prayers that accompany the obligatory prayers of the day, all one has to do is declare that one will pray the nafilah prayers. As we saw, one of the condition of the ayman vows was that the object of the vow be not forbidden (haram) or repulsive (makruh), so that there is no obstacle to the vow being simply permissable. The condition of nathr, however is that the object of the vow be useful in some way. So any nathr to do something or to refrain from something which is not beneficial, meaning that the doing and the refraining from the action in question, are both equal, is void. As in the ayman vows, the breaking of a nathr warrants a fine.
The inner meaning of ayman and nathr, and of the necessity of acting in accordance to them, lies in the fact that both are types of compact with God, and, in the same way that one must respect one's compacts with the creatures of God ("O you who believe, be loyal to your compacts". 15:1]), so is one to respect one's compacts with God Himself. An ayman or a nathr is normally made when one has little confidence in one's willpower. By means of the ayman or nathr one makes a thing obligatory for oneself until one is able to form the desired habit. [6]
Lesson Seven: Laws
The ninth section of the four sections of jurisprudence consists of the issues grouped under the heading of 'laws' (ahkam). This word used here has no special definition. The fact is that those issues of jurisprudence that do not fall into one of the other three groupings have been grouped together to form this one. This section contains twelve books:
The Book of Hunting and Slaughtering (sayd and thibh)
First it is necessary to state that the meat of permitted meat animals becomes permitted either when the animal is slaughtered in a special way (thibh or nahr), or, if the animal is a wild animal the meat of which is permitted, when it is properly hunted by specially trained dogs or my means of an iron missile (like a sharp arrowhead or a sharp bullet).
The meat of tame permitted-meat animals is not permissable to eat if they are hunted, and they must be slaughtered in exact accordance to the Shari'ah. The way of slaughtering most tame animals, like hens, sheep and cows, etc., is called thibh and the way of slaughtering camels is called nahr. There is a slight difference between the actual acts of nshr and thibh, but the conditions, such as the slaughterer being a Muslim, and killing the animal in the Name of God, are the same.
Hunting is related to permitted meat animals that are wild, like deer and mountain goats, etc If the means by which the animal is hunted is a dog, the dog must be so trained that it will do whatever it is commanded, and thus reflect its master's will, and the meat of permittedmeat animals that are hunted and killed by dogs that are not trained in this way must not be eaten. In the same way, hunting with animals other than dogs, like hawks, is also not permissable.
In hunting by non-animals means, it is a condition that the weapon be iron, or at least metal, and it must be so sharp that it kills the animal by its sharpness. So hunting with stones and blunt metal missiles is not permissable. In both forms of hunting, just like in both forms of slaughtering, the conditions that the man responsible for the animal's death, he the hunter, be a Muslim, and that he begins in the Name of God, must be met for the meat of that animal to be permissable. There are other conditions but they are detailed and here is not their place.
The Book of Eating and Drinking
Islam has a series of instructions concerning the gifts of nature as regarding eating and drinking. The laws of slaughtering and hunting are amongst these, and so are the laws of eating and drinking. In the view of Islam, all good things, i.e. things that are beneficient and useful, are permitted, while all foul things, things that are not beneficial and which are abominable for man, are forbidden. Furthermore, Islam has not contented itself with explaining these generalities but has made it clear that a whole group of things are foul and must be shunned, and that other things are good and there is no obstacle to the making use of them.
Eating means either the eating of meat or the eating of other things. Meat is either from the creatures of the sea or of the land or of the air. Of the creatures of the sea only fish are permissable, and then again only the fish that have scales. [7] The creatures of the land are of two types: tame and wild. The tame animals, the meat of which is permissable to eat are cows, sheep, camels, hens, horses, donkeys and mules which are all permissable, though the eating of the meat of horses, donkeys and mules is undesirable (makruh). The meat of dogs and cats and pigs is forbidden. Of the wild animals, the meat of carnivorous animals and insects is forbidden. The meat of deer, however, and of wild cows and goats and other wild animals that are permissable when tame, is permissable. The meat of hares and rabbits, though they are not carnivorous, in accordance to the famous verdict of the 'ulema is forbidden.
Of birds, the meat of the different types of pigeon, partridge, ducks, domestic hens and so on are permissable. The meat of hunting birds is forbidden.
In the cases where the Shari'ah has not made clear the status of the meat of birds, there are two signs of its being forbidden. One is that when the bird flies it does not need to flap it's wings all the time and mostly glides. The other is that it has no crop, or no gizzard or no sign of a bump on the back of its leg.
Other than animals: to eat or drink any kind of intrinsic filth (najasat) like urine, faeces, blood, sperm, alcohol, etc., is forbidden, and the same applies to any intrinsically clean thing that intrinsic filth has dirtied and which is called mutunajas. Similarly, to eat or drink anything that is harmful to the body, the harm of which is considered significant like poison, for example, is also forbidden . If medicine discerns that a certain thing, tobacco for example, is definitely harmful to the body, to the heart, let's say, or to the nerves, and shortens one's life expectation or produces cancer, then its use will be forbidden. If it is not consequential, however, and is simply like breathing the air of most cities, it is not forbidden .
For a pregnant woman to consume something which leads to the abortion of her child, or for a person to consume something that leads to disorder of the senses, or for a man to consume something that leads to his sterilization, or for a woman to consume something that leads to her permanent sterility, is forbidden.
To eat earth is absolutely forbidden, whether it is harmful or not. The drinking of intoxicating liquors is also absolutely forbidden. Furthermore, to consume that which belongs to another without the consent of the owner is strictly forbidden, but this is an incidental prohibition, not intrinsic.
Some parts of permitted-meat animals is forbidden, including the spleen, the testicles and generative parts. Likewise, the milk of forbidden-meat animals is also forbidden .
