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What is the religious ruling on a husband saying to his wife, "You have caused me a complex regarding this matter, and I will not come near you until I die," after she refused his request for intimacy due to fatigue?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Your declaration that you will not approach your wife until death is not considered a legal 'ila' (vow of abstinence) by the majority of scholars unless it is accompanied by an oath. Therefore, no expiation (kaffarah) is required of you if you resume marital relations with her. However, if you abstain from cohabiting with her for a period that harms her, she has the right to refer her case to a Sharia judge to remove the harm, either by divorce or by obtaining her right to cohabitation. It is forbidden for a wife to refuse her husband's bed without a valid excuse.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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