WOMEN IN ISLAMIC IDEOLOGY 65 not exchange their good properties for your bad ones, nor consume their properties by mixing them with yours .... But if you cannot do justice to orphans then you marry from among (orphans) women such as you please . . . two, three, four. If, however, you feel you cannot do justice (among your wives) then marry only one or women slaves." Hence, given the changed circumstances. Engineer does not hesitate to call for a ban on the practice. With reference to the position of the Quran on divorce and the obligations of the husband to his divorced wife—the focal point of debate in the Shah Bano case—Engineer emphasises the importance of the process of ideological transendence.Taking account of new problems arising from an ever changing environment, it is necessary to rethink the matter, rather than seek refuge in the historical position on religio-legal inheritance. The author notes the most widely prevalent form of divorce in India, i.e., the husband pronouncing the word 'tajaq9 thrice in one sitting, draws its legitimacy neither from the Quran nor from the Sunna (practice of the prophet). It can be traced to a specific eventuality during the time of the second Caliph, Hazrat Omer. The Quran, which endowed Muslims with the right to innovate and adapt, nevertheless prescribed three menstrual periods during which divorce is pronounced, becoming irreversible only after the third menstrual period. It is clear that the present position with regard to divorce, which dates back to the second caliphdom, was the product of innovation and substitution through tjma (consensus) over time. Engineer draws the attention of those who emphasise the Quran and the Hadithand requests them to act accordingly, for the good of Muslim women. The Quran clearly prescribes ceitain obligations of husbands towards their divorced wives. They are warned to be just and benevolent. To cite a verse from the Quran : "Lodge them where you dwell according to your wealth and harass them not so as to straiten life for them. And if they w^re with child, then spend for them till they bring forth their burden. Then if they ask of you, give them due payment and consult together in kindness". The point that Engineer makes is noteworthy— that the Quran exhorts men to look after their wives in the same manner as they look after themselves, rather than throw them out with a pittance. It is true that the Quran does not prescribe any period for the maintenance of a divorced wife. But this must be understood in its context. In Arabian societies, divorce was no stigma for a woman. She could renurry or even revert to her parents' home. The contemporary situation is different. A divorcee today is a curse upon herself as well as her family. Which father, not to talk of kin, is known to accept his divorced daughter ? In such a situation it is no solution to propose that her blood relatives should take care other. What about those who have no parents or kin to fall back on ? One is really amazed by the logic of the bill on the rights of divorced Muslim women. Given today's situation, poor women will be to reed to chose between an immoral life and untimely death,