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Is it permissible for the husband to travel with his second wife on all of his trips, while compensating the first wife financially and with nights, or to travel with the second wife using her money without compensating the first?

2 min readAlso available in العربية

If a man has more than one wife and wishes to travel, he is not permitted to take one of them without the others, except by drawing lots or with the consent of the wife who is not taken. This ruling applies whether the journey is for a religious pilgrimage or for other reasons. The proof for this is the narration from Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, used to draw lots among his wives when he intended to travel. The presence of children does not prevent traveling with the wife chosen by lot or consent, as long as there is someone to care for them. If a man travels with one of his wives without drawing lots or the consent of the other, he has committed an injustice. He is then obliged to compensate the wife who was left behind with a period equal to the duration of his travel and stay. There is no difference in this matter whether the travel expenses are from his own money, or from the accompanying wife's money, or from a third party's money, as justice is obligatory. This is based on the Prophet's, peace and blessings be upon him, saying: "If a man has two wives and he does not deal justly between them, he will come on the Day of Resurrection with one of his sides drooping." If he is unable to take all his wives, or finds it difficult to do so, and sends them all with a mahram (unmarriageable kin) of theirs, that is permissible, and he does not have to compensate any of them. If he travels with one of them selected by lot and she stays with him in the new country, he must compensate the remaining wives for the duration of her stay with him in that country only, not for the duration of the journey.

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

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