QUESTION

If a man does not pray, is his marriage contract null and void due to that? If we go by the ruling of the scholars that say the one who abandons prayer due to laziness is not a disbeliever, then is his abandoning of the prayer something that nullifies his marriage contract? What should a woman do when this is her husband's case?

ANSWER by Shaykh Rabee' ibn Haadee Al-Madkhalee, well-known scholar and retired professor from the Islaamic University of Al-Madeenah

This issue is something the scholars have differed about. Some of them would declare such a person to be a disbeliever outside of Islaam, and thus his marriage contract would be nullified, and all other related rulings would apply to him (as a disbeliever), like inheritance, etc.

However, many of the scholars did not declare such a person to be a disbeliever. They would remind him about Allaah, clarify to him the danger of abandoning the prayer, that if he was to allow the time of just one prayer to pass him by without praying, then he would be killed. The ruling on him in Islaam is that he is to be killed, may Allaah bless you.

The affair of prayer is a heavy one. The one who abandons the prayer must be admonished. If he rejects the admonition and insists (on not praying), the his wife must take the case to court if she is in a Muslim country. Why? So that she can get a khul' and remove herself from the marriage contract. And it is not permissible for her to stay with him so long as this is his case.

As for the issue of the contract and its nullification (due to his abandoning of the prayer), then I am not able to say that it is nullified. However, the solution here is that she is to be granted a khul'.

SOURCE

This was translated exclusively for www.bakkah.net from a cassette recording with the knowledge and permission of the shaykh, file no. AARM003, dated 1423/7/23.

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