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Fatwa CenterObedience of a wife to her husband
Question
Conditional obedience: A wife must obey her husband if he provides monetary items in return, whatever those that may be, big or small.
Unbound obedience: A wife must obey her husband under all circumstances except in sin (Ma’siyah Allah), whatever monetary items he may withhold, big or small. In short, is obedience conditional or unbound?
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
It is probable that the questioner did not clearly understand the Saying of Allah: {Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allâh has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend (to support them) from their means…..}[4:34].
The above verse is like Seddiq Hassan said in Fath Al-Bayan: ‘It has been already clarified in detail why the men deserve more of the inheritance, when explaining that they differ in general about their merit in inheritance’.
The meaning of the verse is not that the wife obeys her husband on the condition that he gives her money. The wife has to obey her husband by the fact of being married to him, but if he does not spend on her, which is a duty for the husband towards the wife, then she can ask her right from him. If he refuses, then she can take the matter to the court.
Imams Malik, Shafi’e and others are of the view that it is permissible to invalidate the marriage if the husband is unable to provide food and clothing for his wife.
Allah knows best.
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