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Often, they have to resort to a dual legal identity to pursue their conduct of affairs - one Islamic, another, the secular legal system in the country/countries of residence or nationality. A person maybe not be legally married in terms of the secular law but married in terms of Islamic Law and therefore perhaps suffers having his children classified as illegitimate or his/her spouse fails to receive the proceeds of inheritance or other insurance policies in the event of the demise of the spouse who holds the assets or such policies. Another may have married in terms of secular law and divorced in terms of Islamic Law and continues with this status for either for some legal advantage to any one of the spouses or because of some other obstacle that could be a valid problem. Some are legally married and legally divorced in terms of the secular law but have reconciled and subsequently only married in terms of Islamic law. Sometimes a person marries in terms of the secular law for the sake of the acquisition of a citizenship or other reason but is absolutely unmarried in terms of Islamic Law since there was neither true intention to marry and nor sufficient witnesses at the instance of the legal marriage to render the marriage valid in terms of Islamic law. Sometimes a Muslim legally marries a female who, in terms of Islamic law, is not allowed to him in marriage because she is neither Muslim, nor Nasraaniyyah (Follower of Jesus), and neither a Yahoodiyyah (Follower of the teachings of Moses). However, he/she concludes this marriage either for citizenship, some financial advantage to either one or both of them, or because he/she disregards the teachings of Islam. In another case, a Muslim male is legally married in terms of the secular law of a non-Muslim state to the first spouse but not to his second spouse since the State prohibits bigamy and polygamy. There are also instances where a Muslim male person is only married on an Islamic basis to the first wife but marries the second wife on a secular legal basis for the purposes of citizenship, some other advantage or valid problem within the marriage structure.
Perhaps the easiest route in all of this, is the Muslim males ability to marry a maximum of four wives without any one of the marriages to be recorded in the civil marriage register. Fortunately, in regard to the legal controversies, the reality at ground level is the fact that a second marriage is often a rare event in most Muslim communities in the non-Arab world.
Muslim clerics often suffer to resolve marital conflicts and fail to enforce financial duties of the males towards their Islamic spouses or Islamically divorced ex-spouses since the marriage is neither recorded in a manner that is recognized by the state in which they live.
Also in divorce cases, female spouses often use non-Islamic secular rulings of the state to gain financial advantages which Islam does not consider to be their right. Often, Muslim females will deny and reject Islamic rules pertaining to the custody of the children and use the secular court to ensure a legal right to custody although such a right is conferred to her for a limited amount of years. Muslim males then suffer to have their Islamic rights of custody. The social problems and legal battles that emanate from these ugly scenes have indeed cost our society a great loss of financial resources as well as pain within its inner harmony.
In terms of benefit to Muslim females, and provided that they register their marriages in terms of an Islamic personal law that is recognized by the State, the application of the Muslim Personal Law would enable them to ensure that their male spouses fulfill their rights to maintenance during the period of marriage and during the religiously defined period of iddah (waiting period) after a divorce. It would allow them to apply for the termination of their Islamic marriage to a court that would be recognized by the Muslim citizens and which would have the power to enforce the judgment.
Although in almost all Muslim divorce cases in non-Muslim states , the females were the ones to reject Islamic injunctions and fight for custody of the children as well as claim maintenance for their own persons, after an Islamic Divorce, for periods in which Islamic rules negate their right to maintenance, the application of the MPL will allow Muslim males to gain their custody rights which seem to have been eroded over the centuries. They will not be then obligated to pay maintenance to their ex-female spouses for their children in conformity to the custody rights and periods specified by secular non-Islamic legal systems which, generally, extend to the age of 21. Rather, the males would gain custody when their sons reach the age of seven or when the daughters reach the age of nine. Islamic jurists of the various Islamic legal schools differ on the age periods in relation to custody and on other aspects of maintenance, but specifying the marital contract to be concluded by the rules of a specific mazhab (Islamic Legal School) or legal code will define and limit the diversity of legal interpretation within Islamic Law.
The application of Muslim Personal would grant secular non-Islamic states with a variety of advantages:
1. A full record of Islamic marriages
2. A coherent legal system to cater for the personal and religious beliefs of Muslim minorities due to which the inner conflict, which stems from the absence of such personal laws, would be curbed.
3. A defined legal code in respect of insurance benefits to surviving spouses, social welfare benefits and all other related areas pertaining to the marriage contract.
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