Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Second Fascicle

[Some people say: “How does a person become a disbeliever
by saying one word although he performs namâz and all other
acts of worship and pious deeds?” Kâd›zâde Ahmed Efendi
‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ writes in his commentary to Birgivî:
“As a disbeliever becomes a Believer by saying the word tawhîd
once, likewise a Believer becomes a kâfir by saying one word.
When the husband or the wife becomes a murtadd with kufr-i
inâdî (obstinate kufr), [1] their nikâh becomes void, but this does
not mean a divorce. For this reason, it is permissible for them to
renew their îmân and nikâh more than three times without hulla.
(Hulla is an interim marriage procedure which Islam dictates as a
condition which a three-time divorced couple has to fulfil for the
permissibility of a third remarriage. This condition enjoins the
woman to marry another man and perform waty with him before
she can marry her former husband. This deterrent ordinance in
Islam’s marital code bears hard on the sentiment of jealousy
intrinsic in man’s nature and cautions him against the
consequences of indulgences in his right to divorce, and thereby
protects a married woman from being a plaything in the hands of
her husband and from leading a married life made intolerable by
the continuous trepidation of an unexpected and unwarranted
divorce. The woman, on the other hand, if she really loves her
husband and is afraid of having to part with him for good, will
concern herself more closely with her possible role in the
episodes that occasioned the former two divorces lest it should
take place a third time, since her husband might very well choose
to do without her rather than stomach the excrutiating aspect of
hulla.) It is not enough for one of them only to renew the nikâh.
The husband and wife should renew their nikâh in the presence
of two witnesses. In the Shâfi’î Madhhab, if she repents during
the time of her iddat it is not necessary to renew the nikâh. For
facility, he who is in the Hanafî Madhhab should take a verbal
proxy from his wife for renewing the nikâh and say in the
presence of two witnesses, “I have remarried my wife, who has
been my wife before this renewal, acting by proxy on her behalf
and in person on my behalf.” Male or female, every Muslim
should say a certain prayer which renews the îmân and nikâh,
[1] Kinds of disbelief are explained in the first sub-chapter, entitled
DISBELIEF (KUFR), beginning in the nineteenth page of the
seventh edition (2008) of Ethics of Islam.
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