Sharia means “the Islamic Law” – how to live according to the Muslim teachings. I have devoted my life to this. I’m a judge with the Islamic Sharia Council, which was set up in 1982 to guide the UK community on Islamic-related matters. All its scholars and judges are graduates of the Islamic universities throughout Muslim lands, or graduates from dar al uloom, the private institutions that teach Islam in India and Pakistan.
I have lived in the UK since 1976. As a judge (qazi) I rule on legal issues that affect the daily lives of British Muslims. We leave criminal cases to the British courts. There is a lot of financial, usually inheritance, stuff; but the overwhelming majority of our work is divorce.
Normally the woman comes to us. This is for one simple reason: under British law both the man and woman have to apply to the court for a divorce. Under the Islamic system, the man may end the marriage if he thinks it right. It is preferable he does this in front of two witnesses, then it is a simple exercise to say: “I divorce you.” The only thing we must ascertain is that he has given the dower (dowry) to the woman. This is a marriage gift from bridegroom to bride. Unless he has paid it, the man cannot get a divorce.
When a woman applies, the process is called a khula divorce. If the husband agrees, the matter is settled, but if not, we invite both for an interview, and we do emphasise reconciliation. If she is seeking the divorce, she has to return the dower to him, if not, no divorce.
Custody often raises problems. A woman might argue that she needs the dower to support her children. But the UK has child benefit so we know she will get money from the state. She can’t escape her obligations toward her husband on the pretext of taking care of the children. We might also suggest she give custody of the children to the man if she cannot afford to keep them; she usually refuses. Islamically, we are at a dilemma here. According to Sharia, at the age of seven, the male children are allowed to choose whether to be with the man or the woman. Females, at 14, the age of majority (when Islam deems them “responsible” – able to, for example, trade or marry), should be returned to the man, as it is his, not the woman’s, responsibility to find them a husband. But that is not the case with the British system, which is why we don’t generally interfere in custody battles.
Often we get women saying they are separated, only to discover that the husband still stays the odd night. They think they are separated just because they are not living together.
We have had problems with disgruntled men unhappy with our rulings. One man threw a kettle of boiling water at us. Thank God nobody was hurt. Another time I sent divorce papers to a man in Bangladesh. He sent back a letter with the divorce certificate torn into pieces. He had also smeared it with something because when I touched it my hands started to burn. I reported it to the police but they couldn’t do anything. He sent another letter a week later with the same stuff on it, but I was careful. I wore gloves.
We recognise British divorces if the petitioner shows us a decree absolute. If it is the man, we have to see if he has given the dower amount to the woman or not. If not, we ask him to give it to her. If it is the woman, we do the opposite – we ask her to return the dower to the man. In this way, the condition for Islamic divorce is completed. If both parties want to divorce without casting blame, it is better for everyone.
For our part, we would like two things to be accommodated into British law. The first is the dower. Second, we ask that the 12 or so Sharia councils be recognised as mediation bodies and the British courts enforce their decisions. It would ease the pressure on the British legal system – at least one section of the community would be taking a little of the burden upon itself.
