i need to ask about my marriage life, i ve been married from last 8 years my husban used to beat me. i never asked him for divorce was living with him and tried to get on but from last one year he was abusing and saying every day i ll give u divorce i was feeling so insulted and i ask him to leave the house, he left the house in jan this year after tha my heart wasnt accepting this i wanted him to come back cause i still love him but now he doesnt want to come back he says its your fault you asked me to leave the house, i wana ask what our relgion says about this we are separate from four months , am i allowed to apply for the divorce or i should wait for him ihave no kids and im living alone, thx

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.

Beating the wife, harming her, humiliating her and threatening her with divorce are matters that are contradictory to the Sharee’ah. Besides, it is evidence of the husband’s wickedness and bad moral conduct; since it is going against the command of Allaah to be kind to the wife and to have good marital relationship with her. For more benefit on the Islamic texts that were reported in this regard, please refer to Fatwa 88304.

As regards driving your husband out of the home, then this is permissible if this house belongs to you otherwise no. However, the mere separation between the husband and his wife does not have any effect on the bond of marriage between them as we clarified in Fatwa 82732.

Additionally, the husband should not leave his wife hanging, neither married nor divorced; rather, he should either keep her in kindness or divorce her in kindness as per the command of Allaah in His Book.

Moreover, if the wife if harmed by the absence of her husband from her, then she has the right to ask for divorce, because harm is a sound reason for asking for divorce as we clarified in Fatwa 88408.

Dear sister, it might be that it is better for you to ask for divorce if your husband treats you as you mentioned and persists on refusing to come back home. In addition to this, you were not blessed with children with him, so all these are advantages for asking for divorce if there is harm, and Allaah may bless you with a better husband.

Finally, the two following matters should be mentioned:

1- The statement of the husband to his wife ‘I will divorce you’ is a promise of divorce and not a divorce. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 89065.

2- If a wife becomes disobedient, there are some steps in the Sharee’ah that should be followed in order to discipline her, and hitting her is not the first step; moreover, hitting has some conditions that must be met when resorting to it. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 89480.

Allaah Knows best.