It has been mentioned in the previous article http://www.faithfreedom.org/wordpress/?p=9467 that in 2001, a full Bench of the Bombay High Court ruled - "Mere pronouncement of talaq by the husband or merely declaring his intentions or his act of having pronounced the talaq is not sufficient and does not meet the requirement of law." It should be mentioned here that, even the Muslim ulamas are also divided in their opinion on this point. According to a conservative school, including the followers of Imam Abu Hanifa, "a talaq is a talaq". It is valid irrespective of whether arbitration and reconciliation have been sought. These schools maintain that, utterance of the word ‘talaq' thrice is sufficient for a Muslim man to divorce his wife. It should be mentioned that, M Hidayatullah, in his "Principles of Mehamedan Law", had expressed exactly the same view and wrote, "As soon as the husband pronounces the word ‘talaq' thrice, the marriage gets dissolved irrespective of time and place, and divorce becomes operative from that very moment."(Tripathy Publishers, 1980, p-324).

These schools further hold that triple-talaq conveyed to one's wife on telephone, or by e-mail and even via SMS, is valid. So, mufti Salim Akhtar, who runs a madrassa in Mumbai, says, "Such talaqs are valid if the husband confirms in person that he had pronounced them." He also considers a talaq valid, if the husband pronounces triple talaq even in the point of rage or in abnormal or intoxicated state, and even if in a dream. In June 2005, Raza Ali Khan, an Indian vocalist, divorced his German wife by posting her a telegram and he then remarried. In March 2006, a couple Aftab Ansari and Sohela Bibi, residing in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal,were ordered by the local imam to live separately because Aftab had allegedly uttered the word ‘talaq' thrice in dream.

But some other schools maintain a different view. "Ideally there should be elders from both sides as arbitrators and they must try to resolve the dispute between the couple. Talaq should be uttered only after the reconciliation has been exhausted. But if the procedure is not followed, it does not mean that the talaq becomes invalid", said Mufti Abdul Ahad Falani, a qazi (judge) of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB). It has been mentioned that while the Muslim clerics and ulamas discuss the matter in presence of non-Muslim and civilized audience, they denounce talaq-e-bidat (or triple talaq) in which the husband divorces his wife by uttering the word ‘talaq' in one sitting. On the contrary, they try to highlight talaq-e-ehsan, in which a couple is given three months time to separate if they wish. The separation period gives the couple an opportunity to patch up their differences.

Renowned Muslim scholar and an apologist Asghar Ali tries his best to convince that the Koran does not approve talaq-e-bidat and said that this method (i.e. talaq-e-ehsan) alone should be valid. He wants the Shariah courts in India to follow the said Koranic injunction and allow talaq-e-ehsan as the valid decree of divorce. But the arguments of Asghar Ali do not seem to be tenable as we have seen that the Koran in this regard says, "Ye may divorce your wives twice; and then either retain them with humanity or dismiss them with kindness ...." (2:229). "But if the husband divorces her a third time, she shall not be lawful for him, until she marries another husband. But if he also divorce her, it shall be no crime in them if they return to each other again, if they think they can observe the ordinance of Allah" (2:230).