May Allah have bestowed upon me the favor of completing half of my religion about five months ago, and I was required at the time of the contract to house her in an apartment separate from my family, despite

The questioner : May Allah have bestowed upon you, O Virtuous Shaykh, the favor of completing half of my religion about five months ago, and I was required at the time of the contract to house her in an apartment separate from my family, despite the fact that my father’s house is large, with about fourteen rooms, and contains only my father, my mother, two brothers, and a maid. I also agreed to this condition. Recently, I was required to pay the mahr, which is approximately forty thousand riyals. The total cost was about eighty thousand riyals, covering the apartment furnishings, the wedding party, the value of the gold, and the mahr. The point is that after this period, I wished I had not agreed to the housing condition, so I began telling my wife of my desire to live with my family. She refused, despite the spaciousness and size of the house. I tried sometimes to persuade her and sometimes to threaten her, but to no avail. She justified this by her fear of problems and insisted on not living with them. I know that my father may need me, as he is an elderly man showing signs of old age, and I am the eldest of my brothers. My mother also suffers from illnesses and has undergone surgeries, but none of this has led my wife to waive her condition and agree to live with them. I know that when I visit her family, they say to me as if they are doing me a favor: “We, praise be to Allah, have not fallen short with you, nor have we asked you for what many people ask.” They believe that I have been short with them regarding her mahr and her clothing. They say that they facilitated my marriage to her by not making many demands, all with the intention that I would love them and their daughter more. In fact, the opposite happened; I developed hatred for them and their daughter. Whenever I think of the apartment, the costs of the marriage, and the deferred mahr, I say to myself: “Is it true that they did not burden me? May Allah forgive them.” The point is, O Virtuous Shaykh, in conclusion of this letter, that I am determined to move, and she refuses. What should I do, O Virtuous Shaykh Muhammad? Should I divorce her, or should I boycott her? Is there a Shari'ah means for her to waive her condition? Please advise us and guide us, may Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : I say that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, said in His Book: The command to fulfill contracts includes the command to fulfill their essence and their description, which is what was stipulated in them. And He, Mighty and Majestic, said: It is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: It also came from him (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: It is established from him that he said: The implication of this is that a condition that does not contradict the Book of Allah is valid.
With these texts, it becomes clear that it is obligatory for my brother the questioner to fulfill the condition that was stipulated upon him at the contract, which is to house his wife in a place separate from his family, and not to attempt to drop this condition by threat, because attempting to drop the condition by threat is contrary to the command of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to fulfill contracts and covenants, and to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
So if you are able to keep her in her place according to the condition that was agreed upon between you, that is what is required. I see that you should remain so and wait, because the period that has passed since the marriage is short. So be patient and wait until the time between you lengthens, perhaps things will become easier in the future.
And if you are not able to do that, there is no blame on you to divorce her in this situation if you cannot remain with her in her house. But know that divorce is not an easy matter, because divorce is a breaking for the woman, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And because a person may divorce a woman while hoping to find someone better than her, but he does not find her, and perhaps he will get a woman who has more problems than this woman.
Finally, I repeat to my brother the questioner that he should be patient and wait. He is able to fulfill this condition and remain with his wife and be dutiful to his parents, because there is no contradiction between this and that, as time is ample, so he can be with his family and with his wife. We ask Allah to make things easy for us and for him.

The questioner : Or, O Virtuous Shaykh, he takes an apartment close to his family?

The Shaykh : Yes, or he takes an apartment close as well, perhaps that will make the matter easier.

The questioner : May Allah bless you, O honorable Shaykh.