What is the ruling on a husband exploiting divorce to threaten his wife in every matter he desires, and what is the ruling on a husband who compels his wife to obey him in every matter, arguing that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, commanded a wife to prostrate to her husband?
Threatening one's wife with divorce for every matter the husband desires contradicts living together in kindness (ma'ruf). Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen forbade threatening the wife with divorce, as some ignorant people do, because this makes her alienated from the husband. The correct approach is for him to admonish her and remind her of Allah's verses. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not command a woman to prostrate to her husband, but he said: "Were I to command anyone to prostrate to anyone, I would have commanded a woman to prostrate to her husband." This is an exaltation of the husband's right and the obligation to obey him in what is good and lawful (ma'ruf), but not in every command, even if it contradicts the , because "there is no obedience in disobedience; obedience is only in what is good and lawful."
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Reviewed by El Fatwa's sharia committee.
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