Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa declaring that marriage by a divorced Muslim woman with a non-Muslim was null and void. The fatwa said the remarriage of the divorced Muslim woman with her former husband was also not valid as per the Islamic law.
Maulana Mufti Arshad Farooqui, head of the on-line fatwa department of Darul Uloom Deoband, said the marriage by a divorced Muslim woman with a non-Muslim for the purpose of nikah halala was invalid.
He said if a Muslim woman was divorced and wanted to remarry her former husband she would have to marry another Muslim man for halala and then get divorce to marry the first husband.
The issue was brought before Maulana Farooqui by a resident of Mumbai, Munawwar Ansari who said a Muslim woman, after she was divorced by her husband, married a Hindu person and later separated from him and now wanted remarry her former Muslim husband.
Meanwhile, All-India Muslim Women Personal Law Board chairperson Shaista Amber condemned the fatwa, saying the clerics were in the habit of the issuing meaningless fatwas.
Saying that Darul Uloom Deoband had become a fatwa factory, she said that instead of issuing unwarranted fatwas, the Islamic seminary should concentrate its efforts and resources on the overall well-being of Muslims and their social and educational uplift.
Amber said a “dirty practice” like halala could never be part of Islam and its jurisprudence.
