The question was direct. “Do you know anyone who can perform halala?” Shocked as I was, I once again asked him to repeat the question. His words did not change. So you want me to play a pimp? I asked him. “What”, he questioned.
Yes, you heard me right? “You want me to play a pimp in the name of God and find a man who can sleep with the women divorced by her husband so that she could be divorced again to sleep with her original husband in a divinely sanctioned manner?”

“You want her to act as a prostitute for one night and expect her husband to wait for the morning when the new husband after sleeping with her would divorce her so that he could sleep with her again. And you think this is what would please God, almighty who calls him the just God.

You are telling me that God directs a woman to sleep with another man because her husband made a mistake by pronouncing divorce three times either in one sitting or in three separate sittings.”

Unfortunately this is how some people have corrupted the word of God.

But God says in the Quran … no one would carry the burden of the other .. (35:18).

I further explained. Why should this woman be humiliated in the name of faith for the wrongs of her husband? It is neither logical nor rational nor human.

This is not an imaginary discussion. This is what many people have discussed with me over the years and this is what I hear from many Muslim clerics who describe scores of incidents where they helped the distraught husband reunite with his wife after they did a favor in the name of God by sleeping with the divorced wife or arranged someone else in their circle to do the job for the sake of living up to the standards of the faith.

How religious and dedicated these holy men are to God who would not mind sleeping with the wife of someone else who wrongfully uttered the most dreaded words in the Muslim family system and how caring they are to divest their holy energy in keeping the spirit of the faith alive?

Even though the Prophet described those who perform halala and enforce it the worst of human beings, yet the practice is performed in the name of God by those who claim to follow the Quran and the messenger who introduced them to the Quran.

It is an inhumane practice and has nothing to do with the divine guidance. It is barbaric and rooted in ideas that treat women nothing but as an object of sexual pleasure. The persistence of this practice in Muslim society speaks of the corruption that is prevalent in religious circles.

Halala has no sanction in Islam and it should never be associated with the divine guidance because it is the antithesis of human decency and divine grace.

The Quran does not prescribe it and the Prophet opposed it very strongly. The Quran explains a few untoward situations in family relations in surah Baqara, (chapter two verse 229-230). It says that when the dissolution of marriage takes place for the first time, the parties could make it final or resume marital relationship. If the marital relationship is resumed and dissolution takes place once again, then also the parties can finalize the dissolution or resume marital ties. However, if marital ties are resumed and dissolution takes place for the third time, then remarriage is not permissible.

However, there is an exception. If the woman married someone else and the marriage was dissolved following the rules of divorce, then the previous husband may approach his previous wife to remarry him but it would be her decision to accept the proposal or not to accept it because a marriage is not considered valid without the consent of the two especially the wife.

Where does the Quran say that a one night stand has to be arranged to have the wife go through the ordeal of sleeping with another man so that she could re-join the previous husband who could not control his own anger? Where does the Quran say that a religious cleric has to be involved in the process working as a pimp?

This practice is rooted in a concept of divorce that gives men the arbitrary power to decide the fate of his wife with whom he shared the vows of staying for life and living with love and mercy. That concept is also un-Islamic, yet many Muslim clerics are refusing to acknowledge the supremacy of the Quran over their schools of thought who developed a juristic position based on their circumstances.

Let us hope that the evil practice is brought to an end in our lifetime so that we may not be counted as an accomplice in this crime against God and His creation.