and only afterwards, if he chooses of his own accord to part with her—never with the intention of making her permissible for you.

My advice to you is this: so long as you are in Riyadh, go immediately to the Presidency of Scholarly Research and Iftāʾ, present your case, and in the meantime keep away from your wife until you know the ruling of the Sacred Law. If you are outside Riyadh, then consult the recognised muftīs and the courts in your locality. The matter is extremely serious. Allah knows best.

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Divorce and Severing Kinship Ties

Question: My sister married the son of my maternal aunt. This man is addicted to drinking alcohol; whenever he drinks he loses all self-restraint. On one occasion he strangled her and nearly killed her, were it not for the family’s intervention. My sister can no longer bear his actions, so she returned to us and he decided to divorce her. After the divorce, communication between us and my aunt’s family ceased completely. I request Your Eminence to clarify: is this break considered the severing of kinship ties (qatīʿat al-raḥim)? I have heard that the Noble Messenger ﷺ forbade it because it is among the gravest of major sins.

Answer: The fact that this man divorced your sister—given his bad character, his indulgence in the forbidden, and his drinking of intoxicants—is in itself a good thing. Distancing oneself from people of evil is something required of a Muslim. It is not permissible for a Muslim to keep company with an open sinner who is lax about his religion, for such a person inevitably influences him—especially a wife with her husband: if her husband is corrupt in character and deviates from the religion, he will certainly affect her and her children. Her distancing herself from him and gaining deliverance from him is a relief and, God willing, a source of good for her, and Allah will grant her someone better than him. This also underlines for the guardians of women that