Wife Refuses to Get Pregnant due to Husband Living Abroad and Her Home being Small
Question: I have been married for five years. I have one child. My husband lives abroad, and I live at the home of my family. My husband visits us every two years. He wanted me to get pregnant, but I refused it because I live with my family (my father and my mother), and the house is small, in addition to the fact that my husband lives far away from me in the overseas. Plus, my parents advised me not to get another pregnancy in the moment being. Am I sinful if I refused to get pregnant while I live with my family and my husband wants that from me? My father does not want me to leave that house to live alone in a house or to live with my in-laws.
Answer by the Fatwa Team of Asy-Syabakah Al-Islamiyah Qatar, chaired by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Faqih Asy-Syinqitti hafizahullah
All praise is only to Allah. Peace and blessing be upon the Messenger of Allah, also upon his family, and all of the companions.
Getting pregnant is the communal rights of a spouse. It is not permissible for one of them to prevent the other without any Islamically legal reason.
About you being with your family in a house, that is not an Islamically legal reason for you not to have another pregnancy.
So if you live in a small house, you have a right from your husband that he has to provide you with an independent house for you.
Your father has no right to prevent you from living in a separate house, as what your husband wants from you to do. A woman obeying his husband in a matter of goodness takes precedence over obeying her father or her mother.
Ibnu Taimiyah said:
“If a woman gets married (to a husband), she comes under the possession of her husband from her father. Her obedience to her husband is obligatory upon her.”
Fatwa No: 463432
Date: 29 September 2022 (4 Rabiul Awal 1444)
Source: Asy-Syabakah Al-Islamiyah
Translator: Irfan Nugroho (Teacher at At-Taqwa Quranic School of Sukoharjo)
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السؤال
أنا متزوجة منذ خمس سنوات، ومعي ابن، وزوجي مغترب، وأنا أسكن في بيت أهلي، وزوجي يخرج لزيارتنا كل سنتين، ويريد مني أن أحمل وأنا رافضة؛ لأني أسكن في بيت أهلي، والبيت ضيّق، ولأن زوجي يُطيل في غربته، وأهلي ينصحوني أن لا أحمل، فهل آثم إذا رفضت الإنجاب في بيت أهلي، وزوجي يريد ذلك؟ وأبي لا يسمح بخروجي من البيت للسكن في بيت وحدي، أو مع أهل زوجي؟
الإجابــة
الحمد لله، والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله، وعلى آله، وصحبه، أما بعد:
فالإنجاب حق مشترك للزوجين، لا يجوز لأحدهما أن يمنع الآخر منه دون عذر، وراجعي الفتويين: 31369، 330457.
وبقاؤك في بيت أهلك؛ ليس عذرًا يبيح لك حرمان زوجك من الإنجاب.
وإذا كان بيت أهلك ضيقًا؛ فلك مطالبة زوجك بمسكن مستقلٍّ مناسب.
ولا حقّ لأبيك في منعك من السكن في بيت آخر يرضاه زوجك؛ فطاعة المرأة لزوجها في المعروف مقدّمة على طاعة أبيها وأمّها، قال ابن تيمية في الفتاوى: المرأة إذا تزوّجت، كان زوجها أملك بها من أبويها، وطاعة زوجها عليها أوجب. انتهى.
والله أعلم.
