بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Financial issues between the husband and wife:
Before
we discuss financial issues between the
husband and wife, let us discuss:
1)
Financial
rights of
women in Islam.
Every
woman, whether she is a minor or an
adult, has a right of ownership in financial and property issues. This
is
clearly understood from the following points:
a)
If a son passes away and he is survived by
his, his mother will inherit 1/3 or 1\6 of his estate depending on
circumstances and the Shariah Laws of inheritance and succession.
b)
If a father passes away and he is survived
by a daughter, the daughter will inherit 1\2 or 1\3 of the estate
depending on
the circumstances.
c)
If a husband passes away, the wife will
inherit 1\4 or 1\8 of his estate depending on the circumstances.
d)
Even if the grandchild passes away, the
grandmother will inherit from the grandchild’s estate.
e)
If a brother passes away, the uterine sister
will inherit from his estate.
However,
the blood sister and consanguine sister will inherit according to the
over-arching principles of inheritance and succession.
In
all these cases, the mother, the daughter,
the wife, the grandmother and sisters will inherit according to the
Shariah
Laws of Inheritance and Succession.
The
point in focus is Shariah itself has
appointed a share of inheritance for woman. That clearly indicates a
woman’s
right of ownership in financial and property issues.
2)
Dowry-mahr:
When
a woman gets married, the husband has to
give his spouse dowry. Allah says:
أَنْ
تَبْتَغُوا بِأَمْوَالِكُمْ مُحْصِنِينَ غَيْرَ مُسَافِحِينَ فَمَا
اسْتَمْتَعْتُمْ بِهِ مِنْهُنَّ فَآتُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ فَرِيضَةً (سورة
النساء
آية 24)
“[provided]
that you seek them [in marriage] with [gifts from]
your property, desiring chastity.”
After
enumerating which women are Haram in
marrying, Allah says other women are permissible and seek from them
with your
wealth. That is, give them mahr. That
is
the sole and independent right of a woman.
When
there is a marital dispute and the wife wants
to terminate the marriage, she can offer to return the Mahr which the
husband
gave her in exchange of divorce. This point again illustrates a
woman’s right
of ownership of financial and property issues.
3)
Compensation:
If
anyone breaks or damages a woman’s item, she
has a right to claim compensation for the broken or damaged item.
In
Tirmidhi Sharief, an incident is mentioned
about how Hazrat Aisha(radi Allahu anha)
broke a utensil of another
wife of Rasulullah.
Before
the demise of Rasulullah, he had nine
wives.
He used to spend one night by
each wife.
It
was Hazrat Aisha’s turn to have Rasulullah
Sallallāhu Alayhi Wasallam.Another wife sent a utensil of food for
Rasulullah
Sallallāhu Alayhi Wasallam.Hazrat Aisha (radi Allahu anha) was overcome
by
possessiveness. She hit the hand of the woman that brought the food.
That lead
to the utensil falling down and breaking.Rasulullah Sallallāhu Alayhi
Wasallam
himself bent down and picked up the broken pieces and commented غارت أمكم
your mother-referring to Aisha(radi Allahu anha) has
been overcome by possessiveness. In order
to maintain justice in property rights of his wife, Rasulullah
Sallallāhu
Alayhi Wasallam took a similar container from the house of Aisha(radi
Allahu
anha) and returned it to the other wife.
It
is very clear from these points that a woman
has a right of ownership by her guardian.
However, if a woman is an
adult, she has a complete independent right to
administer her wealth.
If she is a
minor, that is she has not attained puberty, her wealth will be
administered by
her father or whoever is her guardian.
Financial
issues between husband and wife:
In
this we are not discussing the wife’s rights
of maintenance. According to Shariah, the husband has to maintain the
wife
whether she has wealth or not. We will be discussing the following
points:
·
Does
the husband have a
right to know the wife’s wealth.
·
Does
she have to seek
her husband’s permission in administrating her financial
issues.
The
relationship between the husband and wife
is unique. It is a legal bond submerged with intense love. The
implications of
a legal issue are different from the implications of a love issue.
In
legal issues there are rules and regulations
that govern the issues. In love, rules are broken.
According
to Shariah if a wife owns wealth, she
is totally independent in her wealth. She can administer her financial
issues
as she wants. The husband has no right over her financial issues. He
should
respect the right Shariah has granted to her. She can buy, sell, loan,
and deal
in her wealth in such a way that it does not infringe the rights of the
husband.
When
the husband regulates his financial
issues, and he does not tell his wife about his financial issues, he
expects
her to respect his right. If she questions him on his wealth, he does
not have
to divulge information to her. If he buys or sells or does anything, he
can
conceal all that from his wife. The wife should respect that. Likewise
if she
conceals her financial issues from him, he too should respect that.
Flexibility:
Money
can become a bone of contention in a
marriage. A husband and wife should not live like adversaries in a
boxing ring.
All the time fighting on financial issues.
In
marriage, often laws are broken to maintain
love and harmony.
On
one side we have the example of Hazrat Sara
the wife of Ebrahim(a.s).She owned Hazrat Hajra, but she gave Hajra as
a gift
to Ebrahim(a.s).
On
the other hand we have the wife of
Rasulullah Sallallāhu Alayhi Wasallam Hazrat Khadija (r.a). She was
very rich
and wealthy. She gave her wealth to Rasulullah Sallallāhu Alayhi
Wasallam.
Allah says:
وَوَجَدَكَ
عَائِلًا فَأَغْنَى (سورة الضحى آية 8)
And He found
you poor and made [you]
financially rich.
This was through the wealth of Hazrat
Khadija (r.a).
It
is because of this flexibility between the
spouses, it is not permissible for the husband to give zakat to his
wife and
vice versa. The wife cannot give her zakat to her husband. It is very
possible,
she herself will give her zakat to her husband, and she will end up
using the
same money she gave her husband.
Community
of property:
According
to Shariah, the concept of community
of property, where the husband and wife owns 50% of each
other’s wealth by
virtue of marriage is not Shariah Compliant.
The husband and wife will
have to enter into a separate partnership
contract to be partners in wealth.
Taken from Darul Iftaa
