Question
Question: If a man marries a woman and, before the contract, she stipulates that he not remove her from her town or from such-and-such place, and she confirms the condition, and the husband emphatically agrees—so the contract is concluded on that basis—may the husband thereafter remove her from her town, or not?
Answer
Answer—and Allah grants success: He is not permitted to remove her from that town; rather, he is obliged to fulfill what he committed himself to, by His saying: “O you who have believed, fulfill [all] contracts.” [al-Mā’idah:1]. And likewise the other verses that command fulfilling covenants and compacts; and in the ḥadīth: “The signs of a hypocrite are three: when he speaks, he lies; when he promises, he breaks his promise; and when he is entrusted, he betrays the trust.”
Allah praised His Prophet Ismāʿīl, peace be upon him, in His saying: “And mention in the Book, Ishmael. Indeed, he was true to his promise, and he was a messenger and a prophet. And he used to enjoin on his people prayer and zakāh and was to his Lord pleasing.” [Maryam: 54–55]. In this verse Allah praised Ismāʿīl with several praises, the first of which is truthfulness in promise—and for a reason Allah made that the first attribute mentioned.
Yes: the statement of the scholars of the madhhab—“the contract is valid and the condition is void”—means that failure to fulfill such a condition does not invalidate the contract; thus, if a man fails to honor a condition he undertook, that failure does not affect the marriage contract itself, since it is not among the obligations entailed by the contract.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.1
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