Husband Told Her: 'You Look As Beautiful As a Goddess'
Fatwa No: 475726

Question

Husband out of ignorance said you look beautiful as a goddess( not believing in goddesses) but meaning looking very beautiful . Did this affect the couples nikkah then. Do they have to renew nikkah?

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

The mere utterance of the husband to his wife, “You are as beautiful as a goddess,” does not make him a disbeliever. What appears here is that what is meant by that is exaggeration in describing her beauty. Apostasy, as defined by the jurists, is when the Muslim expresses disbelief with explicit words of disbelief, or a word that necessitates it, or an action that embodies it. They gave an example of that by the throwing the Quran in a dirty place and so on.

You should know that if a person’s Islam is confirmed with certainty, it is not removed from him except with similar certainty. Based on what we have mentioned, the bond of marriage between the spouses remains until it is evident with certainty what necessitates separation between them.

We point out that this term is not devoid of some religious prohibitions, such as glorifying the status of the goddess, which are false gods, while the true God is one, who is Allah The Almighty.

Therefore, it is imperative to be careful and preserve the tongue, as it often leads the person to calamities.

Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet said: “A slave (of Allah) may utter a word which pleases Allah without giving it much importance, and because of that Allah will raise him to degrees (of reward). One the contrary, a slave (of Allah) may utter a word (carelessly) which displeases Allah without thinking of its gravity and because of that he will be thrown into Hellfire." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Mu‘adh ibn Jabal narrated that the Prophet said: “Keep this [pointing to his tongue] under control.” I asked: “O Messenger of Allah, shall we be held accountable for what we speak?” He replied: “May your mother lose you! What else can cast people on their faces – or on their noses – into Hellfire more than the harvest of their tongues?” [At-Tirmidhi]

Allah knows best.

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