نکاح ثانی اوروراثت Second Marriage and Inheritance Section Islamic Literature

Abstract

At the onset of Islam in the early 600s CE, Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) expanded women’s rights to include inheritance, property and marriage rights. This expansion is known as revolutionary step of Islam to enhance the dignity and respect of women. This article examines the women rights regarding second marriage and inheritance in Judaism, Christianity and especially in Hinduism and Islam. For this purpose, primary and secondary sources of those religions are analyzed comparatively. In Judaism and Christianity, the woman has not clear right to do second marriage and even men were guided religiously to do second marriage with a virgin girl. In Hinduism, there was a cruel tradition of Satti or woman is permitted to do second marriage with the will of her father in law. Ssimilarly, in Judaism and Christianity the widow is not given share in husband’s inheritance. In Hinduism, the widow has the right in inheritance of husband; however, she has to return the inheritance in case of second marriage. Islam is the complete code of life which provides the legal right to widow to do second marriage as well as fixes the share of woman in husband’s inheritance