His pregnant ex-Jehovah's Witness wife apostated and left him
Fatwa No: 127188

Question

am an egyptian muslim,met a jehovah girl in egypt and we got married after she converted to islam,after 7months she left me and she is pregnant,she return back to jehovah and to the UK,tried with her so hard about islam but she said its not in her heart.she said if i want to contact the baby after she give birth i can but she will not raise him as a muslim,i dont know what to do?shall i keep in touch with her for the baby even if he is not a muslim?shall i ask allah to guide her? shall i ask allah to take revenge? shall i forget about her and the baby/ its too hard to know that i will have a non muslim child pls tell me what to do and ask allha to guide me to the right way.

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, is His Slave and Messenger.

 

We have previously warned several times that a Muslim, be it male or female, should not hasten to marry those who claim to have embraced Islam. One should wait for some time enough to ascertain that they are true to their claim. In reality, there are people who claim to embrace Islam in order to get a particular benefit, after which they revert from Islam.

You should know that your marriage to this woman has become invalid after she had apostated from Islam, thereby she is no longer your wife. But if she returns to Islam before the termination of her ‘Iddah (waiting period), she would return to you as your wife with the first marriage (contract), as shown in Fataawa 106948 and 99158. The pregnant woman's ‘Iddah terminates when she gives birth to her child.

As for the child, he is judged to be a Muslim for he follows the parent with the better religion. This has previously been clarified in detail in Fatwa 81957. So, it is impermissible for you to keep him with her: on the contrary, it is incumbent on you to use all possible means to save him from her, lest she corrupts his nature and brings him up on disbelief.

On the other hand, it is permissible to supplicate Allaah The Almighty to guide her; and this is preferable, perchance she would return to the religion of Islam, and you would then be relieved of many difficulties. But if you find obstinacy in her, and feel afraid of her danger regarding the child, it is permissible to supplicate Allaah The Almighty to take revenge from her and save that child from her.

Allaah Knows best.

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