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Is it permissible for a husband to divorce his second wife due to a lack of common ground and frequent quarrels, along with his dislike for certain things about her, even if she has not committed a sin? And is it better for him to divorce her so that she can marry someone else?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A husband must be just among his wives, and a wife must strive to control her jealousy. The default ruling on divorce is that it is disliked (makruh) or forbidden (haram). The dislike of divorce is indicated by Allah's saying in the verse of Ila' (oath of abstinence): "But if they return [to their wives], then indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. And if they resolve on divorce, then indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing." So, return (to one's wife) is beloved to Allah, while resolving on divorce is disliked by Him. Nevertheless, if there is a legal or ordinary reason for divorce, such as the wife being deficient in religious commitment or chastity and the husband being unable to reform her, then divorce is permissible, and it may even be better. But without a reason, divorce is disliked.

If a woman can live with her husband in a good relationship, that is best for her and their family. However, if the continuation of a good relationship is not possible, and separation is better for one or both of them, then Allah says: "But if they separate [by divorce], Allah will enrich each [of them] from His abundance." Allah may indeed enrich a divorced woman with a husband better than her previous one.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy