The ruling on divorcing a wife who stipulated the condition of not uncovering her face

The questioner : A questioner asked me, perhaps yesterday or the day before. He has a wife who is veiled in the Shari'ah-prescribed hijab and wears a burqah over her face. He had stipulated to his wife before consummating the marriage that she would not uncover her face except in front of her mahrams, and the husband accepted this condition. They lived together for a few years, or many, I do not know. I said to him, "What is this intensity? There is no stranger here; these are your in-laws, your wife's brothers. Why is the burqah on your face?" It appears he moved her, meaning either her father or her mother, because this is her upbringing with the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, the customs of the pre-Islamic age, or her sister. It appears Satan put it between them. He said, "Go back to your family's house." Why? Because she was not uncovering her face in front of her in-laws, and she has been in her family's house for months because she was not obeying him in this matter. He took a promise from me a few days ago, so we sat together for a long time, and he presented the problem to me. I said to him, "There is a long discussion, the conclusion of which is not suitable for this occasion." I said to him, "My brother, I advise you." He said the matter has reached divorce, because she was not obeying him.

The Shaykh : I said to him, "It is not permissible for you to divorce such a woman for two reasons. First, she stipulated in the contract that she would not uncover her face except in front of her mahrams. Your sister, these are your brothers, they are not her mahrams. Your sister is, in relation to her, like me and others are in relation to her, strangers. So it is not permissible for you for two reasons."
That you order her to uncover. The first reason is clear: she stipulated it upon you, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "The most deserving of conditions to be fulfilled is that by which you have made each other's private parts lawful." So you married this woman with conditions, one of which is that she does not uncover her face in front of non-mahrams. So now you are breaking this condition, and this is contrary to the hadith. Second, if you want to divorce her over this issue, do you want to live as a monk, or do you want to marry? He said, "No, of course, I want to marry." I said to him, "Okay, so think: you will marry a woman with no flaw? You will not find that in this world. You will find it in Paradise, where nothing is disliked there. But in this world, this is impossible. Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: If you try to straighten it, you will break it, so enjoy her while it is crooked. And the other hadith is: 'Does not hate' means a husband does not hate his wife. If he does not like a trait in her, he should like another trait in her. This woman is not obeying you in uncovering her face in front of your sister. By Allah, her good is abundant in this time, the one who has jealousy and care to preserve the covering of her face in front of her in-laws. So this woman whom you are bringing, do you think she will be obedient to you even in these limits that contradict the Shari'ah? First, if you find her, do not do it, because you would be disobedient. Then, she will not be found. And if Allah wills, you will find one who obeys you like this one who obeys you.
The point of all this speech. I said to him, if a woman marries a man and says to him, "I know that you are jealous and that you are a follower of the Sunnah, but from now I am telling you that I am not prepared to cover my face." The point of the whole story here. And you married this woman on this condition, so it is not permissible for you afterwards to impose on her that she cover her face, even though covering the face is a virtue, covering the face is a virtue, but it is not obligatory. Therefore, it is not permissible for you to impose on her that she cover her face. So what about you here, on the contrary, imposing on her that she uncover her face? Uncovering the face is contrary to the Sunnah, contrary to the preferred practice. Then, uncovering the face by you for her is contrary to the contract that was made and she stipulated upon you that "I am not prepared to uncover my face except in front of my mahrams." By this measure, we must discuss the rulings of the Shari'ah in which a Muslim is forced to take a clear position. So we said earlier: his order to abandon prayer is not to be obeyed, whatever the results. His order to abandon the congregation is not to be obeyed, whatever the results. His order not to pray the Sunnah is to be obeyed, because there is no sin. The Bedouin said when he asked the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) about what Allah has made obligatory upon him, among what was mentioned to him was: By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I will not add to them or subtract from them. So this, by his own will, he pledged to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that he would not pray more than five prayers and would not subtract from them. The man does not want to do voluntary prayers, a content man, he only wants to perform the obligation that Allah has made obligatory upon him. So if there is a father who orders his son not to pray the voluntary prayers, let him be like that Bedouin, let him preserve the obligatory prayer. And every Muslim is a scholar and a guarantor, meaning a guarantor that if there are no hidden sins, he will enter Paradise, and our Lord will not question him, "Why did you not pray the Sunnah?" And on this occasion, I say that the hadith, which some preachers also mention on the pulpits and in some lessons, "Whoever turns away from my Sunnah, my intercession will not reach him," this hadith has no basis. And there is a hadith that may be more important than this hadith, but it must be understood correctly: . "Whoever turns away from my Sunnah." The intended meaning of the Sunnah in this authentic hadith and in that hadith which has no basis, the intended meaning of the Sunnah is not what is opposed to the obligatory prayer according to the jurists, so that it is said that the one who does not pray the Sunnahs does not receive the intercession of the Messenger. And the Messenger said to the Bedouin, "You will enter Paradise if you are truthful." The man succeeded if he was truthful. And the intended meaning of the Sunnah here is the way and the methodology that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was upon. And this is what I was aiming at in the beginning of this session. I was planning to explain that the call must today be confined to the Book and the Sunnah, and we do not deviate from it by a hair's breadth. So whatever the results, there is no obedience to the created in disobedience to the Creator, especially regarding these two matters: he orders him to abandon prayer, just as if he ordered him to abandon the congregational prayer in the mosque. Then, the deviator must deviate from his deviation, and it is not for the one on the straight path to deviate from his path. This is the obligatory duty. And when he stands