OPTION OF DIVORCE DIFFERENT FROM DIVORCE

It seems there were other occasions of domestic discord, some of them centering round money.  These must have occurred in the early days at Medina, when Muhammad lacked funds.  Once AbU Bakr and �Umar went to Muhammad and found him �sitting sad and silent with his wives around him.� He told the two fathers: �They [his wives and their daughters] are around me as you see, asking for extra money.� Then AbU Bakr �got up, went to �Aisha and slapped her on the neck; and �Umar stood up and slapped Hafza� (3506).

On this occasion, the Prophet also gave his wives the option of a goodly departure if they �cared more for this world and its adornments than for Allah and His Apostle and the abode of the Hereafter� (QurAn 33:28-29).  The wives chose the latter.

The moral of these ahAdIs (3498-3506) as drawn by the translator is that �mere giving option to women to divorce does not make the divorce effective, but when it is really intended.�

author : ram swarup