🚪 Divorce, ʿiddah & rujuk · #23
After divorce, who has the right to live in the marital home?
During ʿiddah, the divorced wife has the right to remain in the marital home; after that, the right depends on a court order, custody (hadhanah) of the children and ownership of the house.
Allah forbids husbands from turning divorced wives out of their homes during the ʿiddah (at-Talaq 65:1) and commands that they be housed where the husband lives, according to his means (65:6). In the Shafi'i school, this right to housing exists for the ʿiddah of both revocable (raj'i) and irrevocable (ba'in) talaq.
In the Federal Territories, Act 303 s.71 gives a divorced woman the right to live in the home she lived in during the marriage so long as the husband does not obtain other suitable accommodation for her; this right ends when the ʿiddah ends, the period of child custody ends, she remarries, or she openly commits a lewd act (fahisyah). State Enactments have equivalent provisions. Ownership of the house itself is settled through a claim for jointly acquired matrimonial property (Act 303 s.122). See ʿiddah & rujuk and talaq & divorce.
Allah forbids husbands from turning divorced wives out of their homes during the ʿiddah (at-Talaq 65:1) and commands that they be housed where the husband lives, according to his means (65:6). In the Shafi'i school, this right to housing exists for the ʿiddah of both revocable (raj'i) and irrevocable (ba'in) talaq.
In the Federal Territories, Act 303 s.71 gives a divorced woman the right to live in the home she lived in during the marriage so long as the husband does not obtain other suitable accommodation for her; this right ends when the ʿiddah ends, the period of child custody ends, she remarries, or she openly commits a lewd act (fahisyah). State Enactments have equivalent provisions. Ownership of the house itself is settled through a claim for jointly acquired matrimonial property (Act 303 s.122). See ʿiddah & rujuk and talaq & divorce.
Difference among the schools. Hanafi: a woman in the ʿiddah of an irrevocable talaq (ba'in) is entitled to housing and maintenance. Shafi'i and Maliki: entitled to housing, and maintenance only if pregnant. Hanbali: no right to housing or maintenance unless pregnant (the hadith of Fatimah bint Qais).