It is written in Surah “Baqarah”...

It is written in Surah “Baqarah”: “A divorce is only permissible twice: after that the parties should either hold together in equity or separate in kindness. It is not lawful for you men to take back from your wives any of that portion which you have given them except when both parties fear that they would be unable to keep the God-ordained limits.

If your judge has reason to fear that the parties will be unable to keep the God-ordained limits, so decree, for there will be no blame on either of them if she hands over a sum in exchange for her freedom. These limits are God-ordained so do not transgress them since that is to wrong yourself as well as others.”(1) In the “Exegetical Collection,” it is related that Ibn Abbas reported that Jameel, wife of Thabit bin Qais, sought an audience of the Prophet and complained to him: “O Apostle of God!

I cannot stand one moment more of life with Thabit bin Qais, nor shall my head ever rest again on the same pillow as his.” After a pause, she added: “I am not accusing him of a lack of faith or of moral and marital virtues: but I am afraid that I myself will fall into infidelity and blasphemy if I have to spend another minute with him. I turned up the tent-skirting and my eye fell on my husband in the middle of a crowd of other men.

He looked so ugly, a black-avised, dwarfish runt, and I hated him, and I can’t go on. …!” She ran on thus, and the Prophet, after absorbing her outpouring, tried to advise and admonish her, but she paid him no heed. So he sent for Thabit bin Qais and laid the situation before him. Thabit was deeply attached to Jameel, but self-sacrificingly and for her sake agreed to take back the marriage portion he had settled upon her – a beautiful garden – and give her a khul’ divorce.

(2) There are cases in which the resort to the court by the wife is statutory. There are also cases in which she can divorce her husband without legal aid, as in cases of certain grave chronic diseases like leprosy or elephantiasis; or because of the onset of lunacy, or of physical defects which prevent marital intercourse, like impotence or castration of the husband.

For these Fiqh gives the wife haqq-i-faskh-the right to the rescinding or annulment of the marriage, which “faskh” is not the same as the khul’ divorce, and does not involve the same financial renunciations by the wife as khul’ does. Germany and Switzerland, in Europe, also recognize lunacy as grounds for the annulment of a marriage or for separation.