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Snoring wife feels mistreated

Question

A husband has two wives; one has a problem with snoring due to nasal problems. So the husband chooses to sleep in another room while he stills sleeps with the other wife in the same room. Thus the wife he is sleeping away from (only because of this problem) she feels very hurt and sometimes feels a little distant from him please. Is it ok what he is doing, e.g. sharing room with one wife but not the other?

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 is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

In Islam a man has to be just with his wives regarding spending the night with them, so this man has to be just in spending the night with his wives. We advise him to be patient about the snoring of one of them. She is not blamed for snoring as the matter in not in her hands; it is something that Allaah had decreed on her. So he has to endeavour to find a treatment for this, and Allaah may make it easy. There is no disease except that there is a cure for it. However, if the wife is not cured and the husband cannot bear sleeping with her while she has this condition, it is an obligation on him to try according to his ability to be just with her when it is her turn, and spend the rest of her night in a third room, and it is not permissible for him to spend the night in his other wife's room, unless there is no alternative.

Finally, it should be noted that a wife has the right for a separate accommodation; however, the circumstances of the husband and the wife should be taken into account.

Allaah knows best.

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