How I Gave Up On A Modern Muslim Marriage.

[ghulam muhammed]

How I gave up on a modern Muslim marriage
I swore I'd marry under the new Muslim marriage contract. But it was such hard work convincing other people that I broke my vow

The contract, which was relaunched this summer, does away with a lot of old cultural baggage. It stresses loyalty, mutuality and equality between husband and wife, protects the wife's financial rights and points out that there is no obligation for a bride to live with her in-laws.

The new contract confirms that in Islam, a woman of adult age doesn't need a wali; she can declare her own intention to marry without someone else's official permission being given first.

Like most Muslims, I'd also assumed that witnesses to the nikah (the Muslim marriage) always had to be men, but the new contract states that Islamic law only says a witness to marriage should be a sane, responsible adult, with no conditions on gender or faith – meaning women and non-Muslims can be witnesses too.

The Muslim Institute took four years of extensive and careful Islamic research to come up with the marriage contract, seeking clarification between cultural assumptions and religious facts. It's been endorsed by the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, the Muslim Law Council, the Imam & Mosques Council and the Muslim Women's Network – so surely, if the contract wasn't Islamically valid, then none of these bodies would have put their weight behind it.

But the Muslim Institute's good and hard work seems to have achieved little. Despite investing in a website and relaunch this summer, it's astonishing and disappointing that so few people appear to have even heard of the new contract.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... e-contract

[anajmi]

It's funny how people think about these things. When a husband beats up his wife, do you think he wouldn'tve done it if the contract had prohibited him from doing it? (fart - look at 4:34 look at 4:34).

In other words, a wife beater will be a wife beater no matter what the contract says.

[Fatwa Banker]

A wife beater is a true Wahabi following the tenets of Islam per 4:34. By choosing not to hit their wives and ignoring 4:34, the rest are engaging in innovation.

[anajmi]

Even when fart is desperate, he smells the same.