What should a wife do with her husband who does not pray, knowing that she has made a great effort to advise and persuade him, and that she has children with him?
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The questioner : The questioner, S. M. A. al-Zahrani, says: I ask you, O honorable Shaykh, about a woman whose husband does not pray, while she is holding fast to prayer. She has made a great effort to persuade him, but to no avail, to make him pray. She has children from him. What should she do? May you be rewarded.
The Shaykh : It is obligatory for her, after she has done what she can to advise this man, to separate from him and take her children to her family. For the husband who does not pray is a disbeliever, an apostate, and outside of Islam. It is well known that a Muslim woman is not permissible for a disbeliever, by explicit text and scholarly consensus. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said regarding the emigrating women:[Al-Mumtahanah 60:10] So she and her children should go to her family. And Allah will make a way out and a solution for her, as long as she leaves for the sake of Allah. She will find what suffices her in place of this husband. And perhaps, if she leaves, this husband will be guided, hold himself accountable, and say, "How can I make myself the cause of my family’s disintegration?" It is not permissible for her to remain with this man for even a blink of an eye as long as he does not pray.
The questioner : May Allah bless you, O honorable Shaykh.
The Shaykh : It is obligatory for her, after she has done what she can to advise this man, to separate from him and take her children to her family. For the husband who does not pray is a disbeliever, an apostate, and outside of Islam. It is well known that a Muslim woman is not permissible for a disbeliever, by explicit text and scholarly consensus. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said regarding the emigrating women:
And if you know them to be believers, then do not return them to the disbelievers; they are not lawful [wives] for them, nor are they lawful [husbands] for them
فَإِن عَلِمتُموهُنَّ مُؤمِناتٍ فَلا تَرجِعوهُنَّ إِلَى الكُفّارِ لا هُنَّ حِلٌّ لَهُم وَلا هُم يَحِلّونَ لَهُنَّThe questioner : May Allah bless you, O honorable Shaykh.