I got married to my wife in Pakistan 18 years ago and brought her to England, we are having problems and aruging on a regular basis in front of my 4 children. She refuses to wash my clothes, cook and take care of the children, she is not being a good wife. She is my dads niece and I have talked to my dad about it but he just says work it out. She swears at my family and shouts when i go out, she has made witch craft stuff in my house in front of my children and my mom and dad have found it in our house. If she is in England, has a British passport and lives as a British citizen does that mean we are legally married under the British law? If we are how do i get a divorce and do i have to divorce her under Islam or British law? Also how long would it take to finalise the whole thing?

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.

The Muslims should resort to the judgment of the Sharee’ah of Allaah, which is the Book of Allaah and the Sunnah of the Prophet and they are not permitted to seek the judgment of other than that, whether this is in regard to marriage or to other matters.

Divorce is in the hands of the husband, and whenever he issues it, it becomes effective regardless of the nationality of the wife, and this does not require going to the court. However, divorce should be authenticated by the Sharee’ah judge or whoever may act on his behalf, like Islamic Centers in western countries as a way of preventing disagreement and dispute. We have already issued Fatwa 85415 clarifying how to divorce according to the Sunnah, so please refer to it.

Therefore, if the husband did not divorce his wife, nor did the Muslim judge – or whoever acts on his behalf – divorce her from him, then Islamically divorce did not take place even if the judge who rules by man-made laws issued it.

On the other hand, there is a difference of opinion among the scholars in regard to the ruling on the wife serving her husband. According to the most preponderant opinion, this depends on the customs of the people according to which one should act, and this differs from one country to another. For more benefit in this regard, please refer to Fatwa 86344.

Also, if the wife insults the family of her husband, then this proves her bad moral conduct, and her raising her voice over her husband and scolding him are considered as disobedience on her part; for more benefit on the steps of dealing with a disobedient wife, please refer to Fatwa 85402.

However, we advise you not to hasten to divorce her as much as possible, especially that you have children from her, because in general divorce has bad consequences on the children.

As regards doing magic, then it is not permissible to accuse your wife of that without evidence, and if it is confirmed that she did it, then this is a great evil from which she must repent, and you should advise her about it.

Finally, it should be noted that the spouses should avoid problems, and if any problems occur, then this should be far from the children, as this sounds more logical and reasonable. No doubt, discussing marital problems in front of children has major negative effects on them. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 89039 and 82541.

Allaah Knows best.