A Comparative Overview of Islamic and Civil Laws Regarding Marriages and Divorces in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Marriage is one necessary aspect of human life, which secures his faith, lineage and social stability but divorce rate in our communities is becoming alarming despite the fact that it is the most detested act in the sight of our creator. This study therefore aims to brand a comparative overview of Islamic and civil laws regarding marriages and divorces in Abuja, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to describe the socioeconomic characteristic of the respondents in the study area, compare the purpose, benefit, and characteristics of marriage and divorce in Islam and civil law, highlight the factors encouraging marriage and divorce among the respondents, determine the factors affecting the choice of marriage and divorce between Islamic and civil and proffer recommendations for Muslims in the non-Islamic environments in practicing the sharia laws in the aspects of marriage and divorce. Primary data was collected and interview conducted with lawyers and marriage counsellors. Descriptive statistics and probit analysis were used for the data analysis while Person Moment Correlation was used to test the hypothesis. The results show that all the respondents have at least a Junior Secondary school Certificate while majority (58.3%) have a University education. About 52.5% of them have between 5-10 years of marital experience, 25.4% have between 10-15 years of marital experience and only 1.7% have more than. About 65% agreed that both couples are in the same social status, 36.7% said that their spouse are suggested for them to be married to and 61.7% agreed that they choose the partner they married by themselves. Age and level of education of the respondents at 10 % and 5% level respectively significantly determined being in marriage or going for divorce in the study area, while age of the respondents, gender, their educational level and household size, are good predictors of the choice of marriage or divorce in Islamic and civil options. Therefore the finding is not consistent with the stated null hypothesis which implies that there is significant relationship between the respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics and the choice of marriage and divorce in Islamic and civil options; hence, the null hypothesis is rejected. The study therefore recommended that knowledge about the Shar’ah laws as well as marital knowledge and understanding on how to sustain a family ones established should be emphasized for would be couples before and after marriage.