Am I obligated to divorce my wife who constantly rejects me, abuses me and my family, does not pray, withholds marital intimacy from me, and insists on divorce, knowing that she may revert to her bad treatment, and is she entitled to take her belongings and the gold I gave her at the beginning of our marriage?

First, the wife should be advised about prayer, with gentleness and kindness, for abandoning prayer is one of the gravest sins.

If the wife repents of her disobedience and mends her ways, that is good. Otherwise, divorcing her may be better for the husband, as the prayer of one who has a ill-mannered wife and does not divorce her will not be answered. The husband has the right to refuse to divorce her until she ransoms herself from him with money if she is disobedient.

If the wife is divorced without stipulating the forfeiture of any of her rights, she retains the rights of a divorced woman, such as the mahr (dowry) and so forth. Her maintenance during the iddah (waiting period) is forfeited due to her disobedience, unless she is pregnant.

As for movable assets and gold, the ruling on them varies according to circumstances. The cost of medical treatment for children is obligatory, but the wife does not have the right to compel the husband to pay for expensive treatment with no hoped-for benefit.