This is why the wife of Thābit ibn Qays ibn Shammās, may Allah be pleased with him, said to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: “O Messenger of Allah, I find no fault with Thābit ibn Qays in his character or religion—he is upright in his religion and upright in character—but I fear falling into disbelief in Islam.” By “disbelief,” she meant failing to fulfil the duty owed to a husband, as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “You frequently curse and are ungrateful to your husbands” (1). She did not mean that she would disbelieve in Allah, Mighty and Majestic; rather, she meant that she would be ungrateful concerning her husband’s rights. For she said, “in Islam,” and the preposition “in” indicates circumstance; this shows that her Islam remained intact. In some narrations, she stressed this further, saying: “Were it not for fear of Allah, I would spit in his face” (2), such was the intensity of her aversion to him. This is not surprising, for women have powerful emotions, both of love and of hatred. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, then asked her: “Will you return his garden to him?” The garden was her bridal gift, for he had given her an orchard as her bridal gift. She replied, “Yes.” The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, then said to Thābit: “Take back the garden and divorce her.” So he took it back and divorced her (3).

The point of this hadith is that she said: “I find no fault with him in his character or religion.” Accordingly, if a husband seldom attends the congregational prayers, prays infrequently, is undutiful to his parents, deals in usury, or the like, then his wife may request khulʿ because she dislikes his religious commitment. This is especially so since some husbands, when they first propose, present an appearance pleasing to those who see them, in terms of character and religious observance, as Allah says of the hypocrites: “When you see them, their outward appearance pleases you” [al-Munāfiqūn 63:4]; that is, you see that they are among