Support IslamQA

Please contribute generously in order to ensure the continuity of our website InshaAllah.

He has two wives and it is difficult for him to treat them fairly

06-02-2005

Question 41737

A man has two wives, each of whom lives far from the other, so it is not easy for him to treat them equally in terms of staying overnight with them. His place or work and business is where one of the wives lives, which means that he spends more time with one of them than the other. Is this husband sinning or not?.

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

We should see whether the two wives are happy with the situation or not. If they are both happy then the matter is clear, because they have the right; if they are happy with what the husband is doing then there is no problem. If each of them demands her rights for the situation to be corrected, then he must treat them equally, spending a day with one and a day with the other. If it is too hard for him to go back and forth between them every day, then he may stay with one for three days or a week, and with the other for three days or a week, according to whatever he agrees with them. What matters is that he should treat them equally in terms of maintenance and time and everything in which he can treat them equally. 

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen. 

Liqaa’aat al-Baab il-Maftoohah, 3/447 

He should try to make their homes closer together and nearer to his place of work and business, so that he will be able to treat them fairly. 

And Allaah knows best.

Plural marriage and fair treatment of co-wives
Show on Islam Q&A website.