Wife is not Islamically obliged to pay the debts of her husband

26-4-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. A men proposed to me and wants to marry me. We live in europe; he has a debt and is paying that off. He has an agreement with the government of our city that he pays a certain amount per month for three years and then what is left of the debt is going te be cleared and he wil be debt free. I work for this government and want to stay working for now. Is it halal for us to marry in our land of origine, Morocco, and not to notice the government where we live and not register on his adress till this debts are over. The reason for this is that if I register on his adress or give them notice of our marriage, they wil take a great part of my salary. And we both do not want my money to go to his debt. May Allaah reward you. Wassalam.

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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.

You are not Islamically obliged to pay the debts of your husband, and the authorities have no right to force you. So you are permitted to prevent this by doing what you mentioned.

The validity of the marriage does not require registering it with the official authorities although we always recommended that it be registered in order to preserve one's rights and ward off harm.

It should be mentioned that if the government dropped a portion of the debt from that man on condition that he did not have a working wife, then he is not permitted to conceal the truth about this, as the Prophet said:,"Muslims are bound by their conditions." [Abu Daawood - As-Suyooti graded it saheeh (sound)]

Allaah knows best.