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Chapter 16 - A Difficult Case of Divorce

Tholaq Samvadam of Abdulla Musliyar (b. 1950)

from Part II - Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh) and Related Genres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Sayyed Mohamed Muhsin
Edited by
Omar Anchassi  and
Robert Gleave
Omar Anchassi
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Robert Gleave
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

This chapter explores an extremely involved and technical debate on the dynamics of marriage and divorce among adherents of the Shāfiʿī school of law in Kerala, specifically the intervention of the Keralite jurisconsult ʿAbd Allāh Musliyār (b. ?). The issue in question is the validity of a declaration of unilateral repudiation (ṭalāq) using a particular grammatical construction uttered in front of the husband’s mother-in-law (known locally as the ‘Valapuram Ṭalāq’ case). The effectiveness of this particular form of divorce continues to divide jurists in the community in question, all of whom defer to the authority of the same canonical legal texts, namely the Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj of Ibn Ḥajar al-Haytamī (d. 974/1566), the Nihāyat al-Muḥtāj of Shams al-Dīn al-Ramlī (d. 1004/1596) and the Fatḥ al-Muʿīn of the prominent Keralite jurist Aḥmad Zayn al-Dīn al-Malaybārī (d. 991/1583).

Keywords

Valapuram ṬalāqUnilateral repudiation (ṭalāq)Samasta Kerala Jamʿiyyat al-ʿUlamāʾ (Samasta)Legal opinion (fatwā)Marriage.
Type
Chapter
Information
Islamic Law in Context
A Primary Source Reader
 , pp. 178 - 188
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Primary Sources

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