| Answer: The divorce
verses of the OT (Old Testament) read as follows:
If a man marries a
woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds
something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate
of divorce, gives to her and sends her from his house, and
after she leaves his house, she becomes the wife of another
man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a
certificate of divorce, gives to her and sends her from his
house, or if he dies, then the first husband who divorced her
is not allowed to marry her again after she had been defiled.
That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring
sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an
inheritance. (Deuteronomy, 24:1-4)
Some of the
contrasting points regarding divorce between the OT and the
Qur’an are:
i. According to the
OT, a husband can seemingly divorce his wife only on the
grounds of indecency.
The Qur’an, on the contrary does not impose such a condition.
ii. The divorce
sentence according to OT must be in written form (certificate
of divorce), while the Qur’an does not impose this condition.
Divorce sentences pronounced orally are also acceptable.
iii. Contrary to the
Qur’an, the OT does not allow re-marriage between a former
husband and wife, if after divorce, the wife is married to
some other person and this second husband dies or divorces
her.
iv. The OT also does
not allow a husband to exercise his right of a revocable
divorce twice in the course of a marriage, as the Qur’an does.
He can only exercise it once.
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