A husband saying to his wife

27-7-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. During a quarrel, a husband said to his wife, "If you are not satisfied, you may take the decision." Does the husband have any right to say that? Has the husband given any right by saying it? Please answer the question according to the Hanafi Fiqh.

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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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

The apparent meaning is that this statement falls under the category of what the scholars of Fiqh call "authorizing the wife to issue a divorce." It is done either explicitly or metaphorically, as is the case here. Such an authorization is valid according to the agreement of the scholars, including the Hanafis.

Haashiyat Ibn ‘Aabideen reads, "Chapter: Authorization in divorce; i.e. authorizing the wife or other than her to issue a divorce whether the authorization is explicit or metaphoric... The metaphoric one is his statement: 'Choose for yourself' or 'The matter is in your hands.' The explicit one is his statement: 'Divorce yourself.'"

If the husband intended to authorize his wife to issue a divorce and she chose to do so, divorce takes effect. Al-Fataawa Al-Hindiyyah, about the authorization of divorce being given to the wife, reads, "The correct scholarly view is that the metaphoric authorization to the wife to issue divorce and the ones referred to earlier (the explicit authorization) are the same in the sense that divorce takes effect only if the husband intends to authorize his wife to issue a divorce, as underlined in Fataawa Qhaadi Khaan..."

For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 92334.

Allah knows best.