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Fatwa CenterCleaning husband's aquarium without permission to save fish
Question
Assalaamu alakum. May Allaah reward you greatly. My husband has an aquarium with fish. He does not take care of this aquarium well; it needs regular cleaning and so on, and all of the fish have died except for one. Now the aquarium is terribly dirty, and this one fish lives in this very dirty water that nobody cleans. I have asked him to please let me clean it, but he refuses. Can I clean the aquarium without his permission? I am afraid that he will get angry at me, but I feel a responsibility towards the fish since it is alive and is a creation of Allaah that we will be asked about.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
Perhaps the dirty water in the aquarium is not the reason for the death of the fish, as you think. In any case, you should not go against your husband and clean the aquarium without his permission as long as you expect him to be angry as a result. You should continue to advise him gently and try to convince him to care for the aquarium, clean it, and take care of the fish or dispose of them if he cannot take care of them.
Allah knows best.
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