He said to his wife, “You are to me like my mother’s back,” given that he is suffering from schizophrenia and said it at the height of his illness. What is required of him?

The questioner:
I have previously been ill with a mental illness that doctors diagnosed, twelve years ago, as schizophrenia. In reality, I did not lose my consciousness during that period, and I maintained the prayer and the deeds required of a Muslim. I was hospitalized for treatment, but I engaged in some undisciplined behavior during the period of illness, resulting from my inability to control my nerves. Among these was that I broke a car window. Second, at the height of the illness, I said to my wife, “You are to me like my mother’s back,” and I repeated this several times. However, after my nerves calmed down and I recovered, I realized that my actions were incorrect and unsound, and that what occurred from me was a result of the illness. My question is: Does this count as zihar (likening one's wife to a forbidden relative)? Or is it required of me to repent and seek forgiveness? I ask you to guide us. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh:
Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. First, we ask Allah for your recovery and well-being, and for all the sick among the Muslims. Second, what came from you in a state of mental illness, or as you said, at the time of the illness, meaning it came from you without sensation and without awareness, is not considered to be of any account, and you are not held accountable for it. This includes the zihar that came from you while you were in a mentally unsound state; nothing is entailed by it, because the condition for the obligation of the kaffarah (expiation) in zihar and other such matters is that it comes from a sane person with awareness of what he is saying. So, according to what you mentioned in the question, that you said this speech, which is zihar, to your wife several times while you were not conscious due to the illness, nothing is entailed by it. As for the car window you broke, it is obligatory for you to provide compensation,

The presenter:
Yes.

The Shaykh:
because the property of people is respected, so it must be compensated for. It is not a condition for its destruction that the person be sane or insane; it must be compensated for in all cases. It is obligatory for you to compensate the owner for what you destroyed and what you broke of the car’s glass. Yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good.