Marital Status of Husband Who Left His Wife, Committed Zina and Doesn’t Pray

6-2-2002 | IslamWeb

Question:

A little over a year ago, 2 weeks before my daughter was born, my husband moved out of our house to his sisters. There he committed adultery with another woman. He was caught by my brother in-law and he has confessed to me that he had been having relations with this woman for quite some time. My question is am I still married to him if he commits adultery? He does not pray and I don't know if he has repented. He doesn't want to come back home to us but he doesn't want to divorce me either.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Committing Zina and neglecting the prayer are among the major sins, and the person who abandons the prayer completely does not have any share in Islam.

Therefore, such a person should repent for the sins he had committed and seek the forgiveness of Allah. In spite of that, his wife still remains his wife, she is not considered divorced. However, she must exhort her husband and remind him of Allah. If he repents from his sins, then all praise be to Allah. Otherwise, you should demand divorce from him. If he does not divorce you then, you may plead in a court since a chaste Muslim woman should not remain under a dissolute and adulterous person.

For more benefit on the ruling on abandoning the prayer or delaying it, please refer to Fataawa 384457, 377344, 88016, 84178, 83565, 87587, 90926, 88690 and 84403.

Allah knows best.