Question

My sister has been married for almost three years. She is doing her own business and her husband supported her to open her own business as a beautician. She has her own parlor in her home, where she serves only women. Suddenly her husband’s behavior has changed and claims to have seen some dreams and now requires her to lose her business, as he claims to have received some kind of Ilham from Allah Almighty. Furthermore his own income is not enough to support his family and such an action would require the family to move from their home and live with some other people in partnership and so many such other problems. Now, he is forcing my sister to close her business and asking to move with him. He claims to be using his rights of being husband and is trying to force my sister to accept his decision as a wife. We believe this is utter exploitation of the religion and suppression of my sister’s rights to be able to earn. I would request you to give me explicit answer to the following questions:

Answer

We believe that legally the husband of your sister cannot force her to abandon her business. If she refuses to do that that would not be a violation of the rights of her husband and she would not incur any sin. However, socially this can create more problems for her relationship. Both husband and wife need to be cooperative and eager to sacrifice many things to enable the family to run smoothly.

Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi

Date: 2015-02-14