The Obligation of a Man Being Just Between His Wives in Division, Lodging, Maintenance, and Other Matters
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Question:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. After this, there is a lengthy letter of three pages in large format. The sender of the letter is a listener who indicated his name with the letters A, Q, B, Abu Nu'aym, from Riyadh. A summary of what is in these three pages says: I have two wives. The first is thirty-five years old, and the second is twenty-four years old. So the first one always causes problems in the house for certain reasons, and he mentions those reasons. He says that the first one wants the second one to be a servant to her, to her husband, to her house, and to her children. At that point, he consults Shaykh Salih (may Allah preserve him) about the matter. May Allah reward you with good. Does he divide the week between the two, or does he place each one in a separate residence? What is your guidance? May Allah preserve you.
Answer:
The matter is up to him in this regard. He should do what is best in managing his wives, and he must fulfill what Allah has made obligatory upon him regarding their rights. He must be just between them in division, lodging, clothing, maintenance, and housing, and he must not be unjust to any one of them. If he fulfills what Allah has made obligatory upon him in this, then Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, will set his affairs right. I fear that this dispute between them, or between them and him, arises from his negligence or from his mistreatment of their rights or the rights of some of them. He must fix what is on his side, and if he fixes what is on his side, it is likely that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, will make the matter easy and remove this dispute.
As for the issue of whether to give each of them a separate house: Yes, if this is a solution to the problem, he should do this and place each of them in a house. In fact, this is the default. The default is that each one is entitled to a residence that is specific to her and independent of the other. He only gathers them in one residence if they agree to it and the situation between them is good. Yes.
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. After this, there is a lengthy letter of three pages in large format. The sender of the letter is a listener who indicated his name with the letters A, Q, B, Abu Nu'aym, from Riyadh. A summary of what is in these three pages says: I have two wives. The first is thirty-five years old, and the second is twenty-four years old. So the first one always causes problems in the house for certain reasons, and he mentions those reasons. He says that the first one wants the second one to be a servant to her, to her husband, to her house, and to her children. At that point, he consults Shaykh Salih (may Allah preserve him) about the matter. May Allah reward you with good. Does he divide the week between the two, or does he place each one in a separate residence? What is your guidance? May Allah preserve you.
Answer:
The matter is up to him in this regard. He should do what is best in managing his wives, and he must fulfill what Allah has made obligatory upon him regarding their rights. He must be just between them in division, lodging, clothing, maintenance, and housing, and he must not be unjust to any one of them. If he fulfills what Allah has made obligatory upon him in this, then Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, will set his affairs right. I fear that this dispute between them, or between them and him, arises from his negligence or from his mistreatment of their rights or the rights of some of them. He must fix what is on his side, and if he fixes what is on his side, it is likely that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, will make the matter easy and remove this dispute.
As for the issue of whether to give each of them a separate house: Yes, if this is a solution to the problem, he should do this and place each of them in a house. In fact, this is the default. The default is that each one is entitled to a residence that is specific to her and independent of the other. He only gathers them in one residence if they agree to it and the situation between them is good. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 4371- وجوب عدل الرجل بين زوجاته في القسمة والمبيت والنفقة وغيرها - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.