His wife is negligent about prayer though her family are good people
Fatwa No: 91993

Question

I had a lot of dreams about building a true Muslim family and all my wish is to find a girl that would take part in my dreams. Before 18 months I knew a girl from Lebanon through my father and I started to talk to her to explain what was my dream and what I want to do. She told me that she is a Muslim and that she prays and she fast and she knows how a wife have to respect a man and that she needs from me help to support here and teach here our religion. I thought yes she is not perfect in religion but I will do my best to teach here and we will be the best husband and wife in the world. In short we married before one year and since than we have every day problem about every thing and it starts mostly about religion. When she prays she prays everything at the same time ((at night)) and when I advice here about any thing we have a problem. I can accept anything but what makes me angry is when some body dose not care about religion (about the basis of religion). I tried to close my eyes about many things so that I may fix with time but with every day I am losing my self and my good behaviuor I started not to care about here and I started to think truly about divorce but to tell you the truth I do not wish to do that because I am going to hurt her family, they are good people and kind and this will hurt them very. I am really lost I do not know what to do. Lastly I want to tell you that I tried every thing that here family and other people advised me and to your information we are living in Belgium. Please help.

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 is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

 

The first thing a man should look into when willing to marry a woman is religion and good moral conduct. If he wants to marry a particular woman, he should not hasten to do so until he performs Istikhaarah prayer about her and seeks the view of the trustworthy people who know her. A woman who claims to be steadfast on religion and claims that she performs her religious obligations is not enough if she appears contrary to what she claims.

So if this woman is truly negligent about the prayer which is the greatest pillar of Islam after the two testimonies of faith, then she is a disobedient woman and is committing a very serious matter. So, you should follow the steps determined by Allaah in treating a disobedient wife; in this regard, please refer to Fatwa 89480.

If she becomes righteous, then all perfect praise be to Allaah, otherwise threaten to divorce her and if she does not take heed, then take the initiative to divorce her. The jurists stated that if a woman is negligent about her religious obligations, then it is desirable to divorce her. There is no good in living with a woman like this one, and you should look for a pious, religious and righteous woman, and there are so many of them.

Allaah Knows best.

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