Most High:

“Enjoin prayer upon your family and be steadfast in it,” and the remainder of the verse.

And He, Most High, said:

“O you who believe, protect yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is people and stones,” and the remainder of the verse.

And he—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“Teach them and discipline them.”

Alongside commanding her, he should encourage her by making prayer appealing to her, just as he encourages her to do what he needs from her. If she persists in abandoning prayer, he must divorce her; this is obligatory according to the correct view. By the consensus of the Muslims, anyone who abandons prayer deserves punishment until he prays. Indeed, if he does not pray, he is to be put to death. Whether he is put to death as an unbeliever and apostate is a matter on which there are two well-known opinions. And Allah knows best.

He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was asked:

Concerning His words, Most High:

“As for those women whose defiance you fear, admonish them, forsake them in bed, and strike them,”

and His words, Most High:

“When you are told to rise, then rise,”

through to His words, Most High:

“And Allah is fully aware of what you do.”

Would our shaykh explain to us the difference between “defiance” in the first passage and “rising” in the second?

He replied:

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. “Defiance” in His words, Most High,

“Whose defiance you fear, admonish them and forsake them in bed,”

means that a woman turns away from her husband and becomes averse to him, such that she does not obey him when he calls her to bed, or leaves his home without his permission, or does similar things involving refusal to obey him in matters in which she owes him obedience.