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[He Married a Woman and She Fled on the Second Day]

Mufti:
Alsayyed Muhammad b. Abdallah Awad Al-Muayyady
تاريخ النشر:
Fatwa number: 18769
Number of views: 3
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[He Married a Woman and She Fled on the Second Day]
Fatwa number: 18769
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Question

Question: A man married a woman, but she fled his house on the second day and flatly refused to return to her husband’s home, and demanded divorce. The husband refused to divorce except on condition that his expenses be returned. What is required? And what may the husband lawfully stipulate as a condition for divorcing?

Answer

Answer: The husband is entitled, as a condition for divorcing, to everything that came into the wife’s possession, or that she stipulated—such as gold, clothing and their accessories, and what her mother took.
As for the banquet (walīmah) expenses: If the husband bore those costs of his own accord, with no condition from the guardian (walī) or the wife, then he has no right to stipulate their return in the divorce. If, however, it was the wife who stipulated the banquet and refused the marriage contract except with a banquet, the husband may stipulate that upon her. If it was the guardian who stipulated the banquet, then the guardian must reimburse the husband for the banquet expenses—not the wife.
All of this applies where wedding banquets in such marriages are not necessary nor required, but are optional for whoever wishes to hold one—i.e., the wedding would proceed without a banquet. But if the customs in that locale run upon the necessity of a banquet at weddings, then it is not fitting for the husband to stipulate his banquet expenses upon the wife or the guardian; for it is the husband who held the banquet—either to ward off people’s blame and censure were he not to do so, or to earn praise and commendation by doing so, or seeking reward. Since nothing of that entered into the wife’s possession, it is not fitting that he makes it a condition upon her. Moreover, the intended purpose of the banquet has been attained—whether warding off blame, or earning praise, or seeking reward.
Source : Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.1

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