The rights of the wife

 

The rights of the wife

 

Hakeem bin Ma’adiya (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) narrates on the authority of his father that he asked:  O Prophet of Allah (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam)!  What rights do our women have on any of us?  The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  When you eat, feed her as well.  When you wear clothes, clothe her as well (i.e. provide food and clothing for her as you would for yourself).  Don’t ever beat her on the face and don’t abuse her.  (If necessary) separate her from yourself in the house itself.  This is related by Imam Ahmad, Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah.

 

In this Hadith, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) has prohibited us from hitting wives on their faces.  Fatawa Qazi Khan has a clarification on this that a husband may beat his wife for any of these 4 reasons: When the wife doesn’t adorn and beautify herself for the husband; when a wife denies the husband his sexual rights even though she has neither menstrual bleeding nor postpartum bleeding’ when the wife does not offer Salaat; if the wife steps out of the house without the husband’s permission.

 

This is related in Mirqaat and it is mentioned in Tafseer Khazin that Imam Shafa’ee (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) has said:  It is permissible to beat one’s wife (within the constraints laid down by the Shariah) but it is more excellent to refrain from doing so.

 

The grandeur of the face

 

It should be remembered that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) has prohibited hitting on the face because among the body parts, the face has great excellence and nobility.  The face constitutes other body parts like eyes, nose, ears, etc.  (Excerpted from Mirqaat)

 

The husband can (temporarily) stay away from the wife as an admonishment

 

The aforementioned Hadith also says that (if deemed necessary) the husband may separate the wife from him in the house itself.  It means that if the husband suspects the wife, then the wife should not be sent away to another house.  However, it is clearly established from rigorously authenticated Hadith that the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) separated Himself from the mothers of the believers and had gone to the upper storey of the house.

 

This shows that the words of Almighty Allah:  Wahjuruhum anil Mazaji’i does not mean that one should stay away from wives only in one’s own house.  They can also be separated from the house.

 

The fact is that separation can be of various kinds.  It might be that separating oneself from the wife in the house itself is more admonitory than separating from the house itself and sometimes it can be vice versa as well.  In fact separating oneself from them in the house itself can be more painful to women as they are of gentle dispositions.  (Nail Ul Awtaar, Fath Ul Bari)

 

[Excerpted from Noor Ul Masabeeh, Vol. 8]