Staying with divorced wife for 90 days

10-6-2003 | IslamWeb

Question:

My son is divorcing his wife. Does he have to stay with her in the same house during the period of the 3 months after the divorce or can he move out while she stays till the end of the period?

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. The husband has to provide housing for his divorced wife if the divorce is revocable regardless of whether she is pregnant or not. The same rule applies to the pregnant divorced woman whose divorce is Bain (irrevocable). But the rule of the Bain unpregnant woman whose divorce is irrevocable differs according to the scholars of Islam. Some believe that she has the right for housing. This is the opinion of the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafie and it is also one of the opinions of Ahmad . Many companions of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) and many of the rightly guided predecessors who followed them are of this opinion. But, the most correct opinion of the Hambali is that the divorced woman whose divorce is irrevocable does not have the right to expenditure or housing. As for the husband he does not have to stay in the same house where his divorced wife (from a revocable divorce) will spend her Iddah. If the divorce is Bain then the former husband must not stay in seclusion with his former wife, even if he should provide housing for her according to some scholars. Allah knows best.