the process to be adopted when a rupture of marital relations is feared. The two sexes are here placed on a level of perfect equality. A “breach between the two” would imply that either the husband or the wife wants to break off the marriage agreement, and hence either may claim a divorce when the parties can no longer pull on in agreement. In the process to be adopted, both husband and wife are to be represented on a status of equality; an arbiter has to be appointed from his people and another from her people. The two are told to try to remove the differences and reconcile the parties to each other. If agreement cannot be brought about, a divorce will follow.
It will be seen that the principle advanced here in the matter of divorce is an all-inclusive one. All causes of divorce are subject to the condition that one of the parties cannot pull on with the other. If both are willing to live in marital agreement, no power on earth can effect a divorce; but if one party finds that she or he is unable to live in marital agreement with the other, it would be a case of shiqāq or breach of the marriage agreement.
This breach of the marriage agreement may arise from many causes or from the conduct of either party; for instance, if either of them misconducts himself or herself or either of them is consistently cruel to the other, as may sometimes happen, there is incompatibility of temperament to such an extent that they cannot live together in marital agreement. At first sight it may look like giving too much latitude to the parties to allow them to end the marriage contract, even if there is no reason other than incompatibility of temperament, but this much is certain that if there is such disagreement that the husband and the wife cannot pull on together, it is better for themselves, for their offspring and for society in general that they should be separated rather than that they should be compelled to live together. No home is worth the name wherein instead of peace there is wrangling; and marriage is meaningless if there is no spark of love left between the husband and the wife. It is an error to suppose that such latitude tends to destroy the stability of marriage, because marriage, is entered into as a permanent and sacred relation based on love between a man and a woman, and divorce is only