Marriage: Husband and Wife Rights 

Walaikum assalam,

There are two things to remember:

1. There are legal limits the Shariah lays down;

2. There is a spirit the Shariah enjoins.

The first is meant to ensure that the latter is upheld, even in adverse situations, even when things otherwise ‘break down’.

In the Hanafi school, the legal limits are that the wife must obey the husband in anything lawful, related to their marriage, as long as there is no harm or contravention of the Shariah in it, or the taking of others’ rights (including her own, such as her right to dispose of her own property as she wishes).

In terms of providing, in the Hanafi school, the soundest position is that the husband has to provide for the wife according that which is customarily acceptable, based on the social and economic standing of both husband and wife.

In terms of the spirit of the Islamic marriage, it is based on the Qur’anic injunction of “love and mercy,” with both parties realizing the full purport of the Qur’anic injunction that, “Men are the caretakers of women,” and the rights and duties it places on each spouse. Fuqaha have mentioned that all the rulings of the fiqh of marriage go back to this verse:

Men are caretakers (qawwamuna) of women, because of that through which Allah has favored one over another, and because of what they spend of their property(Qur’an 4:34).