Financial issues between the husband and wife:

بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم
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