Assalamo Alikum wa ramat Allah wa barakatuh, I need to know whether I can ask my wife for her sins when I am not with her because she refuses to answer me when I ask her if she did any sins when I wasn’t with her because she doesn’t want to uncover her sin. My wife is a recent muslim since about 4 years ago and she is living in an European country because she is studying and she is not living with me in my country until she finished her university studies. Before marriage she put a condition that she will continue her university studies after marriage in her country and accepted because she is staying there with her family though they are not muslims. I put a condition that she can continue her studies since she doesn’t commit any sin there and that she practices Islam do fareda of prayers and others. I asked her if she did any sin in the last month in this European country and she refused to tell me not to uncover the sin and she said that knew what she did as a sin and she won’t do it again ISA. Please, note that I don’t have the possibility to go stay with her in her country until she finishes her studies at the mean time. She is studying medicine to be a doctor and I asked before for fatwa whether it is allowed for her to study there without me being with her and got an answer that since she is not doing something haram and that she is staying with mehrem ( her parents who are not muslims ) then she can continue her studies. Her country is a disbelieving country. Can I ask her for what sin she may have fallen in while being there ? or I am not allowed ?

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.

It is not Islamic for a husband to ask his wife about her sins in the past or in the present; and it is not permissible for her to tell him if he asks her. She is Islamically obliged to repent from the sins that she has committed and conceal her sin. This is what she is ordered to do according to the Sharee’ah. Abu Hurayrah said: “I heard the Prophet saying: “All my nation is pardoned [by Allaah for what they commit] except those who sin openly or disclose their sins to the people. An example of such disclosure is that a person commits a sin by night and though Allaah screened it from people, he comes in the morning, and says, “O so-and-so, I did such-and-such (evil) deed last night”. Thus, he spent his night screened by his Lord (none knowing about his sin) and in the morning he removes Allaah's screen from himself.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 84052, 86058 and 146547.

Allaah Knows best.