All who know him. and all media reports, that the Ruler of Dubai has six wives – well know he is down to five as it appears as he divorced his sixth wife – without telling her and on the anniversary of her father’s death. This is not exactly a compassionate act and was proven in the High Court in Britain in a decision made public on March 5, 2020.
What are the mandates of Islamic Law as they relate to marriage and polygamy. Polygamy is the practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time. This from Islamic law.
“The overwhelming norm of marriage, for a Muslim, is to marry one woman to be his solace, the joy of his heart, the keeper of his house, and the one to trust with his secrets. Thus, quietude, love, and mercy, the foundation of married life according to the Qur’an, would support them. Therefore, the learned say, “It is disliked for a man who has a wife who is chaste and modest and who is enough for him to marry another. This will subject him to what is forbidden.” The Almighty says: “You will never be able to do perfect justice between wives even if it is your ardent desire, so do not incline too much to one of them (by giving her more of your time and provision) so as to leave the other hanging (i.e. neither divorced nor married)”. [Surah 4:129]”
The Ruler of Dubai (hereinafter ROD) married his first wife when she was nineteen, I do believe. She bore him 12 children and there is every reason to believe that she was chaste and modest when they wed. I met her in London, hugged her and kissed her cheek at her youngest son’s request – she does not speak English. She was clearly pleased and she clearly still is chaste and modest. But, nevertheless, in violation of the Qur’an, and I guess because he could, he married five more times. Allah is not happy with that, it does appear. None of his sons have multiple wives, although they can under the laws of the country and the practices.
Now I do have to admit that I sinned in the same hotel lobby where I met, hugged and kissed the senior wife. I did propose to the man known only to me as the Sultan saying that I would be his London wife. I wrote it in the blog and then read it to the Sultan and then blushed. He does have one wife, so I guess I sinned. But I was not of the Islamic faith so technically I did not sin. I do rather laugh at the improbability of this all, but trust me, it is true.
But I contend that it is an entirely different scenario between my faux pas and the practices of the Ruler of Dubai. I contend this for the following reasons:
“The preservation of a social order depends on each and every member of that society freely adhering to the same moral principles and practices. Islam, founded on individual and collective morality and responsibility, introduced a social revolution in the context in which it was first revealed. Collective morality is expressed in the Qur’an in such terms as equality, justice, fairness, brotherhood, mercy, compassion, solidarity, and freedom of choice. Leaders are responsible for the application of these principles and are accountable to God and man for their administration. It is reported that a man went to Umar, the second khalifa, to talk to him. It was nighttime, and a candle burned on Umar’s desk. Umar asked the man if what he wanted to discuss was personal. The man said that it was, and Umar extinguished the candle so as not burn public funds for a private purpose. Leaders in Islam, whether heads of state or heads of family or private enterprise, have a higher burden or responsibility than others.”
Therefore, the Ruler of Dubai, definitely a head of state, has a higher burden or responsibility than others to preserve a social order. What has His Highness done, he acts in contrary fashion in immoral ways and has, it appears, his whole life. He seems to be a good man to some of his his male children, most particularly the Crown Prince of Dubai, but to the women – absolutely and generally not. He is good to his horses, although drugs them occasionally, which is, of course contrary to law and to human nature and to the horse’s rights (if horses have rights).
I do, at this point, rather laugh at myself. My attorney adeptness is clearly evident in these last paragraphs. Being an attorney is a strange thing – it never leaves you, as much as you want it to. It is rather like a knee jerk reaction to hostility and violation of rights, which is evident here.
The bottom line is this. I shall NOT travel to Dubai to recover from my knee replacement surgery. The ROD can forbid members of his family, all members of his family from seeing me. I am sure he would. That would be a terrible temptation for them as I am convinced I am loved my so many of them. If they tried to see me, goodness knows what would happen to them. The High Court did not trust his assurances, therefore, the two children from the sixth wife remain as Wards of the Court to provide them safety. Because I do love members of the Royal Family of Dubai I cannot subject them to harm. Granny Alexis cannot do that to them, because she loves them But she is powerless to do anything else except to keep herself and them safe by not seeing them. It seems that evil has won over good but, hopefully this is only temporary, and good will prevail. Uncle Dave Dryburgh encourages me in this. “Alexis, Stop Fighting! Go to the Sidelines, They Will Do Themselves In.” Ok, Uncle Dave, I am doing it. It has happened before, I guess it might happen again. I weep convulsively.
I particularly do not expect the Crown Prince of Dubai to take a stand against ROD, his father. His father can strip him of his powers, just as he did with his elder brother. He is best equipped to govern the City State at this important time. Who else could do it but he, the Sultan?
I say this to restore levity to this blog. What is levity? It is light-heartedness, carefreeness, light-mindedness, high spirits, vivacity, liveliness, conviviality, cheerfulness, cheeriness, humour, gaiety, fun, jocularity, hilarity, frivolity, frivolousness, amusement, mirth, laughter, merriment, glee, comedy, funniness, wit, wittiness, jollity, joviality, joking, drollery, good cheer, sportiveness, nonsense, irreverence, facetiousness, flippancy, blitheness, triviality, silliness, foolishness, childishness, giddiness, skittishness.
So here I am being cheerful, jocular, merry, gleeful, and comedic.
The faux pas could be cured. The Sultan could divorce his first wife, it was arranged, therefore void and there is such a thing as divorce (under certain conditions) under Islamic law. . Then the poor man could marry me legitimately.
He: Oh my goodness NO, NO, NO
Me: You have a very good point, But your family does like me and they do need a Granny Alexis
And I do even think Allah would approve, Perhaps you could ask him?
See how incredibly sportive, irreverent, flippant and silly I can be. Even though this is very sad and I have been reduced to convulsive sobs during the writing of this blog and they were NOT tears of joy, believe me, but tears of sorrow.
I shall do this, as well, as an attempt to cheer. Include a framed poster of my debut as a stand up comic while in London. I shall talk about it later. I was a success but I did not like it – it seemed like I was prostituting my sense of humour. I never did it again. But I did promise that when Alix Residences Theatre is completed I shall do a Stand Up Comedy Routine to benefit charity. Not heard from Joo Kim Tiah, of course, multibillionaires are the world’s worst direct communicators, lots of indirect stuff but no direct. Sorry Guys I Want Direct. Indirect not working with me anymore.
