Answered by Shaykh Hamza Karamali, SunniPath Academy Teacher
A friend of mine had an argument with his wife. In the heat of the argument the wife said to her husband: “I will convert to Christianity.” My friend does not know what to make of this. He asked me to write to the list. He wants to know the hukm of this. Is his wife still a Muslim? Can he continue with her as a husband? Does she have to make a shahada to re-enter Islam? The woman says that she did not mean it. Both were raised as Shafiis.
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
Ibn Hajar al-Haytami mentions that one should exercise extreme caution when it comes to ruling that someone has committed unbelief (Tuhfat al-Muhtaj, 9:88 ). Saying that a Muslim has left is Islam is no light matter. The Question above seems to have two people in the chain of transmission to the wife (the husband and his friend), which makes it less likely that what she said was transmitted accurately. Before being able to tell whether or not the wife said something that takes her out of Islam, one would have to know exactly what she said and in what context it was said. Since I do not know this, I will refrain from speculating about her particular case but instead give general guidelines that should be sufficient for the husband and wife to figure out what to do.
Ibn Ziyad, one of the luminaries of the late Shafii school, gave a fatwa regarding a case that is similar to the one above:
[Question: What is the ruling of] a married woman who says: “I swear to do such-and such, otherwise unbelief (kufr) and polytheism (shirk) are incumbent upon me, “and she subsequently does not do what she swore?
He replied:
[Answer:] If she actually intended unbelief (kufr) (Allah be our refuge), then she becomes an apostate and the marriage is annulled if it was not consummated; otherwise [if the marriage was consummated], her matter is suspended until the ending of her waiting period: if she returns to Islam [during the waiting period], the marriage continues; otherwise [if she does not return to Islam], the marriage is deemed to have been annulled from when she swore the oath.
If, however, she did not intend to actually disbelieve, but only intended to urge herself to do the action, then she remains Muslim, but commits a tremendous sin and repentance is obligatory upon her. It is recommended for her to say the two testifications of faith [ash-hadu al-la ilaha illa Allah wa ash-hadu anna muhammadar-rasulu-Llah], since such a statement is not uttered by someone whose very flesh and blood are mixed with faith. (Ghayatu’l-Talkhis al-Murad min Fatawa ibn Ziyad, p.249 on the margins of Bughyat al-Mustarshidin, Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi edition )
From this, we can gather the following:
(1) Regardless of whether or not the wife said something that takes her out of Islam, she should say the two testifications of faith out loud (ash-hadu al-la ilaha illa Allah wa ash-hadu anna muhammadar-rasulu-Llah, meaning “I testify that there is no god but Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah “). If she did commit apostasy, saying this is obligatory and she is not deemed to have returned to Islam until she says it; if she did not commit apostasy, saying this is still recommended because it does not behoove a Muslim to ever say something like this. Note that the word ash-hadu (I testify) needs to be said twice: there are two testifications, not one. Merely saying ash-hadu al-la ilaha illa Allah wa anna muhammadar-rasulul-Lah is not sufficient, since there is no ash-hadu before the second part of the testification.
(2) If the marriage was consummated (it seems that this would be the case for the couple described above), then it is not immediately annulled if the wife leaves Islam. Rather, one waits for the wife’s waiting period (‘idda) to expire: if she returns to Islam (by saying the two testifications described above) before its expiration, then the marriage continues and there is no need to make a new contract. If the waiting period expires before she returns to Islam, then the marriage is annulled and a new contract is needed before the husband and wife can get together again (see also Reliance, m7.4). Note that the waiting period is either three intervals between menstruations (if the wife was not pregnant) or giving birth (if the wife was pregnant). One can refer to Reliance, n9 for details.
Al-Khatib al-Shirbini, commentating on the Minhaj of al-Nawawi, says, “To intend to commit unbelief tomorrow or to make [the commission of unbelief] contingent on something, or to hesitate about [whether or not one should commit unbelief] “all constitute immediately leaving Islam (Mughni al-Muhtaj, 4.176 ). To make a statement like “I will convert to Christianity tomorrow “entails that one has left Islam already (Allah be our refuge from ever uttering something like this). If there was a context to the statement indicating that she might not have meant disbelief by her statement, then her statement would not be considered apostasy if she did not intend it as such. Merely making such a statement, however, and then saying that one did not mean it without there being a context that allows for an alternative interpretation is not sufficient.
Any Muslim who really knows what is going on realizes that the greatest blessing that Allah has given him is his faith. It is worth more than all the possessions of this world. It is the key to eternal felicity. Just thinking about that should make him hope to never, ever say something that would jeopardize his faith.
Bukhari and Muslim relate from Anas ibn Malik that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
There are three things that in whomever they are present will cause him to taste the sweetness of faith: that Allah and His Messenger be dearer to him than all else, that he should love someone for the sake of Allah alone, and that he should loathe to return to unbelief after Allah had rescued him from it just as he would loathe to be cast into fire.
Imam Nawawi explained:
This is because one cannot truly love Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace), or love a human for the sake of Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace), or loathe to return to unbelief except when one’s certainty is strengthened through faith (iman), one is at peace with it, one ‘s chest expands for it, and it mixes with one ‘s flesh and blood. This is the one who has found its sweetness (Sahih Muslim bi Sharh al-Imam Muhyiddeen al-Nawawi, 2.203 ).
May Allah increase us in iman, make it mix with our flesh and blood, and take us from this world with iman in our hearts and the shahada on our tongues.
And Allah knows best.
Hamza Karamali
(Approved by Mostafa Azzam)