What is the ruling on a woman who does not pray? Should she be driven out or divorced?

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : What is the ruling on a woman who does not pray? Should she be driven out or divorced?

The Shaykh : How do you drive her out, meaning?

The questioner : As the questioner mentioned, hehe.

Another questioner : I mean, perhaps he gets angry with her, for example, without divorcing her.

The Shaykh : The truth is that this issue is so delicate that it is difficult for us to say, "Divorce her" or "Do not divorce her." The reality is that the original ruling is that he should not keep her and should save himself from her evil. However, many people are unable to proceed with the divorce, even if they are among the religious, because the couple may have been blessed with children, may Allah will it. So he does a hundred calculations: if he divorces her, where will the children go? Who will raise them? Who will take care of them? And so on. Therefore, I say that whoever is able to divorce must divorce, and it is not permissible for him to keep a wife who, in her best state, is an open sinner, and who, according to some of the Muslim scholars, both past and present, is a disbeliever. How can he hold her hand while she is a disbeliever, or at least, as we said, an open sinner? Then what does this husband think of the offspring that will be born from these two spouses, when their mother is an open sinner who abandons prayer? It is not expected that the offspring will be a faithful, righteous person who prays. For this reason, we say that the original ruling is the obligation of divorce, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered the divorce of a woman whose sin was less than the sin of one who abandons prayer. It was reported in "Sunan al-Nasa'i" and others with a sound chain: "That the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was approached by a man who said: 'O Messenger of Allah, my wife does not turn back the hand of a toucher.' He said: . He said: 'I love her.' He said: ." This hadith is, in fact, a great and significant hadith that combines two important matters. The first matter is what we are discussing, which is that a Muslim should not keep a woman of bad character. It was reported in some authentic hadiths: , and among them was mentioned: .

The questioner: Allah is the Greatest!

The Shaykh : So we understand from this hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered this man to divorce his wife, not because she committed a lewd act or fell into unlawful sexual intercourse, as some people imagine. That is not the case. The man did not accuse his wife of a lewd act. If he had done so, the Messenger would have asked him for four witnesses or the mutual oath-swearing. But none of that happened. Instead, he said to him: . What did he mean by his saying: ? The word "touch" is used in the Qur'an to mean sexual intercourse. From this came the suspicion of those who interpreted this phrase as an accusation of a lewd act. However, the fact that he did not demand witnesses or the mutual oath-swearing indicates that "touch" here is not sexual intercourse, but rather the touch of the hand. This actually happens often between some men and some women, especially in countries or villages where young men and young women live with some degree of free mixing. It appears that this husband noticed that his wife was somewhat simple, which is a trait in some peasant women. A young man might tease her, especially if there is a neighborhood or kinship relationship or something similar. He would say to her, "Come with me," and he would act toward her like this, teasing her, hehe. He would wink at her with that wink. And what is that? She does not think about it, meaning there is nothing like that there.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. But the husband here, what is he doing? He gets jealous and feels that this woman does not sense the husband's jealousy toward her. So he complained of his situation to the Messenger (peace be upon him) and said to him: . He said: . He ordered him to keep her because she is not a fornicator, and he did not accuse her of fornication. But she is naive and has a flaw. The second thing we understand from this hadith is the legal policy. I was hinting at this when we said that regarding the woman who does not pray, the original ruling is that she must be divorced. But it is not said that everyone who is afflicted with a woman like this should divorce her, for fear that his heart will follow her and the smaller problem will become a bigger one, and he will divorce her and regret it, and there will be no time for regret. For this reason, we must know the ruling, which is that it is obligatory to divorce the open sinner or the disbeliever woman because of her abandonment of prayer. But the husband must be wise. That is all I have.

The questioner : Based on this, does that mean all ordinary men must divorce their wives, especially the Palestinians who smoke and do this and that, and the one who hits his wife from time to time?