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Fatwa CenterRefuses her husband’s call to bed on the pretext that she wants a divorce
Question
My wife abstains from having sexual intercourse with me for the past 6-months. She claims that all her duties as a muslim wife are legally dropped (Shari'a) once she requested to divorce me. Please advise, is this true? Please advise what to do being in this situation. Thanks.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
It is the right of a husband upon his wife that if he calls her to bed, she is obliged to honor his request and she is not permitted to refuse unless she has a sound reason. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 85219.
If a wife asks her husband for a divorce, then this by itself is not a sound reason for her to refuse to accept his request. Also, this does not lead to divorce because divorce is in the hands of the husband as clarified in Fatwa 92026.
Therefore, if your wife does not have a sound reason for asking for a divorce, then she is recalcitrant. The method of rectifying her is clarified in Fatwa 85402.
It should be noted that a wife is not permitted to ask her husband to divorce her unless she has a sound reason. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 131953. If she has a sound reason, then she may ask him for a divorce or take her case to an Islamic court.
Allaah Knows best.
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