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Ruling on a woman who supports her children and her sick husband

Question

What is the rulling in islam on a muslim lady who supports his familly because husband is sick and cannot do that . They have children 15,12 and 4. The lady is not complaining as she took it as an exam from Allah and she is patient with the situation . She has been doing so for the last 10 years now.GOD has given her a better job and she can take care of the familly comfortable. She recieves mocking from friends and relatives on his situation that for how long she will continue with this responsibility. NOW her question is how well to deal with the situation. THIS man is mentally affected ,subnormal though he can pray .read quran he is good muslim but not pottentially enough to provide for himself and familly. He was able to support her for the first 3 years of their marriage. She wants to know if there is any verse in the quran or hadith of the prophet s.a.w regarding this issue. She fills she needs psychological support accordind to islamic teaching.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

This wife is simply opening a great door of the doors of Paradise as spending on her husband and her children is an act of charity and keeping ties with kinship. Zaynab, the wife of Ibn Mas’ood  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  them said: “O Prophet of Allaah, you ordered us today to give charity, and I have some jewelry which I want to donate in charity but Ibn Mas’ood claimed that he and his children have more right than anyone else in giving charity to them.” Then, the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) said:Ibn Mas’ood has indeed said the truth, your husband and your children have more right to spend charity on them than anyone else.” [Al-Bukhari]

Moreover, the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) said: “An act of charity on a poor person is only (counted as) charity, while an act of charity on a relative is (counted as) an act of charity and maintaining ties with kinship." [Ahmad, An-Nasaa'ee, At-Tirmithi and Ibn Maajah]

Therefore, we advise this sister to be patient and seek the reward from Allaah, because there is much good in being patient and its result is always good, and this will help her face the mockery of some of her relatives and friends; for more benefit on the excellence of patience, please refer to Fatwa 83577.

Besides, she should remind those people of Allaah and clarify to them that she is keen on the stability of her family and that this has a positive effect on her children.

Furthermore, we advise those women who mock her to fear Allaah and we remind them of the saying of the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ): “Among the good moral characteristics of a person is to leave that which does not concern him.” [Maalik and Ahmad]

Finally, we remind this wife that there are some pre-conditions that must be met when a woman goes out to work which we discussed in Fatwa 82399.

Allaah Knows best.

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