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Validity Of Nikah With An Apostate
One of the consequences of apostasy is that the marriage bond is severed, but scholars differ on whether this is considered a dissolution of the marriage or an irrevocable divorce. If apostasy occurs before the consummation of the marriage, the marriage contract is terminated. If it happens after the marriage has been consummated, the Maliki and Hanafi schools consider the marriage to have been immediately dissolved, while the Shafi’i school maintain that the marriage is terminated at the end of the woman’s waiting period. Both views have been reported as expressed by Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
Can someone please explain this ruling by fiqh above as what Sir Ghamidi thinks about it? One Muslim couple whom we know through community has sort of this situation going on where one spouse left Islam(Allah swt forbid) and other is strong Muslim. They both have beautiful married life. Some common friends are telling them, it had nothing to do with their marriage and they can continue their marriage however they have been researching here and there and found out that as per hanafi fiqh ruling is different as compare to what we are telling them. Due to privacy issues they are not asking any scholar. How we as common Muslims with basic knowledge should help them out? There is a chance one might come back to Islam once they try to properly understand it. It’s just a one question that can we tell them their nikkah is pious in light of Quran/sunna? please ignore other details they are just for clarification. But please let me know what Sir Ghamidi view in light of Quran and sunna?
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Validity Of Nikah With An Apostate
updated 1 year, 3 months ago
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Please refer to:
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Thank you!! I have read this thread before and shared too but this is about interfaith marriage. Above question & ruling is about Muslim couple?
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The post that I shared with you above specifically deals with the case of Muslims and polytheists. In short, nikah is not automatically invalidated by one of the spouses changing their beliefs afterwards.
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Firstly, please understand that we as Muslims, cannot declare any Ex-Muslim, who previously believed in Islam & now has left it becoming a Non-Muslim, as an “Apostate/Kafir/Murtad”. This is not our authority or responsibility. Our responsibility is to guide our brothers, pray for them & not Judge them. If they don’t return than its their choice. We should fulfill our responsibility & leave the matter in the hands of Allah. Nowhere in the Quran or Hadith is this authority to declare Ex-Muslims as Apostates, given to any Muslims. Only Allah has that authority and Allah only uses this authority through his Prophets. Besides the Prophets none else can claim to have a special authority from Allah and assume the responsibilities of Prophets. I am sorry but Passing on Fatwas like this and declaring anyone as Kafir or an Ex-Muslim as Apostate/Murtad is an extremely sectarian mindset that has destroyed our unity from within giving rise to heinous crimes and even civil wars. Therefore we should be extremely careful while choosing our words.
The Four Sunni Fuqaha/Jurists such as Imam Abu Hanifa, Malik, Shafaee & ibn e Hambal were great Muslim Scholars and they served as great interpreters of the legal tradition/Shariat in Quran and Sunnat during their times. However they were still Human beings capable of errors. With due respect to them, they made an error of Judgement concerning this ruling. And they considered a Specific ruling allocated specifically by the Prophet Muhammad(saw) for a particular group & individuals and they applied it generally for all Muslims. However its clear, in the light of Quran, that the Hadith of Apostasy are dealing with Specific audience of the Prophet during his time only. Meaning the punishment of death for the Mushriqeen & Ahl e Kitab of Arabia during the 7th Century who initially became Muslims but later on reverted back to their previous faiths or left Islam altogether. These legal rulings concerning Apostasy or Irtidaad are not to be followed by the Muslims today as Hukam of Shariat. They are not applicable today after the death of Prophet.
Now coming to the Specific example you mentioned here. I personally do not know much about this couple’s situation, hence i cannot comment much & My apologies in this regard. But what little i know from your message i will try to explain inshAllah to the best of my knowledge. The Quran is silent on the specific issue of a Spouse leaving Islam & becoming Non-Muslim. This is a matter that must be sorted out between the Spouses themselves. If the spouse who is a strong Muslim feels that Islam is an essential part of his/her family and must to be kept to raise their children than he/she should think about separating temporarily from the Non-Muslim Spouse until the children become adults & able to consciously choose religion for themselves. Until a time that they become adults, the small children in the house should not influenced by this conflict and must be single minded in following the religion of their Muslim Parent.(i.e. Islam). After they become adults the couple can come together again and decide. By this time the Children should be given freedom to choose whatever religion they want to adopt, whether remaining a strong Muslim or leaving Islam, its upto them and Parents should not interfere or impose their choice on their children. Now they can only teach and guide them.
Secondly the Quran does give some guidance concerning Mushriq Spouse. Its prohibits to marry a Mushriq Man or a Woman. And similarly the Marriage/Nikkah is considered terminated if a Muslim Spouse converts to Mushriq Religion. We have numerous examples from the Prophet’s and Companions lives where the Spouses left their previous husbands or wives, after becoming Muslims & remarried among Muslims from the Muslim Community. Other than that I do not see a specific ruling in the Quran.
The Marriage is valid and legal in the light of Quran and Sunnat. The couple should sort this out among themselves. There is no need for any dissolution of Marriage contract. The Strong Muslim Spouse should continue to be a good example of pious Muslim to convince her/his Non-Muslim Spouse to revert back to the Faith. But should not force. InshAllah hopefully seeing the beautiful example of acceptance and tolerance within the Family the non-Muslim Spouse may consider turning back towards Islam. One should be optimistic rather than Pessimistic. Best of Luck to the Couple and May Allah make this issue easy for them. Ameen 🙂
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If you can read Urdu, this article of mine may help
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@Irfan76 this article is not opening and showing error
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You can refer to the following article in the meantime:
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@Irfan76 sir I guess you might wanted to send some other article but you sent the article on “Eman bil gayeb”
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it might be this one
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