Islamic Fiqh > Marriage and family > Nushuz (marital disobedience)
The wife's nushuz: 3 correction stages (exhortation, bed separation, light correction), the wife's voluntary reconciliation, and the husband's nushuz.
Nushuz designates the wife's marital defiance toward her husband. Its correction follows 3 graded stages: exhortation, bed separation, then light correction; the wife can also end it through a voluntary reconciliation. Nushuz can come from the husband himself, whose remedies are then exposed, and in case of persistent conflict the two spouses may resort to the two arbiters (at-tahkim). The positions of the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools are cited with their classical references.
Contents
Updated on 07 October 2026 at 6:42 PM
The thirteen sheets below are taken from the chapter on marital defiance (an-nushuz) in the Fiqh Encyclopedia. They cover the ruling on the wife's nushuz, the stages of her disciplinary correction (admonition, abandonment in bed, physical discipline), the husband's nushuz and its remedies, and then the recourse to the two arbiters (at-tahkim) in case of discord between the spouses. The positions of the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools are cited with their classical references and the numbers of the hadith collections.
Al-Hawi al-Kabir by al-Mawardi · Shafi'i school
(Chapter of khul' in illness, from the book of the man's disobedience toward the woman.) Question: al-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "Khul' is permitted in illness, as sale is permitted. If the husband is the sick one and separates from her by khul' for less than her dowry, then dies, that is permissible, for he can divorce her without anything."
Al-Mawardi said: this is indeed as he said: khul' in illness is permitted, as in health, for it is a contract of exchange, valid therefore in illness like sale; and because the sick man's divorce is valid without compensation, it is valid with compensation like the sound one; once its permission is established.