QUESTION

Which of the divorced parents gets custody of the children - the mother or the father? What if one of the parents is an openly disobedient person?

ANSWER by Shaykh Wasee Allaah 'Abbaas, lecturer at the Ka'bah, instructor at Umm Al-Quraa University in Makkah

The divorced woman has the right to raise the children up until the age of seven, so long as she is an upright person. After seven years, then the child chooses. If the child chooses to stay with her and she is upright and she has been raising the child properly, then the child remains with her. If not (either the child does not choose her, or she has not been raising him properly), then the child is then given to the father, so long as he is an upright man.

If the father is openly disobedient or incapable of raising the child properly, then the child remains with the mother. And if the mother is openly disobedient or incapable of raising the child properly, then the father is to have custody of the child. [*]

SOURCE

This was translated exclusively for www.bakkah.net from a handwritten answer provided by the shaykh, file no. AAWA009, dated 1423/6/24.

[*] Translator's note - This is not a final judgement to be applied to specific situations. These are merely some of the guidelines considered when making a judgement in a case like this.

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