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Fatwa CenterSeeking Divorce Due to a Husband’s Failure to Meet Basic Financial Obligations
Question
My husband is only bread-runner of his family of 8 members having salary of 150k Pakistani rupee, living in a rented house. In this inflation he is hand to mouth only after 5 days of getting salary. he cannot afford to even provide me 3 meals a day rest of the month. I stay hungry all the day. He doesnot have enough money to buy me medicine and provide me the basic food and medications etc. He gives me pocket money but later I give him back to make both ends meet. can I file for divorce in this.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad, ﷺ, is His slave and Messenger.
If you are harmed by remaining with your husband due to his inability to provide financial maintenance, then it is permissible for you to ask him for a divorce, and there is no blame upon you in this situation. Ibn Ḥajar
said in Fatḥ al-Bārī: “This indicates that the reports which warn women against requesting divorce from their husbands are understood to apply to cases where there is no legitimate reason necessitating such a request.” [End quote.]
Al-Manāwī said in Sharḥ al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr: “That is to say: in situations other than severe hardship that drives her to do so.” [End quote.]
Abū Hurayrah 
reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “If a man becomes unable to provide maintenance for his wife, separation is to be made between them.” [Dāraquṭnī and Bayhaqī]
Similarly, Ibn al-Mundhir said: “It has been established that ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to the commanders of the armies instructing them either to provide maintenance or to divorce.” [End quote.]
However, if you are able to be patient until Allah grants your husband sufficient means of earning to provide your maintenance in a reasonable manner, then that is preferable.
We also draw attention to the fact that a wife’s maintenance takes precedence over the maintenance of other relatives.
It is stated in al-Mughnī by Ibn Qudāmah: “If a person has no surplus beyond what suffices for his own sustenance except enough to support one individual, and he has a wife, then her maintenance takes priority over that of his relatives. This is due to the statement of the Prophet ﷺ in the ḥadīth of Jābir : ‘If one of you is poor, let him begin with himself. If he has any surplus, then it should be spent on his dependents; and if he has any surplus after that, then on his relatives.’” [End quote.]
Allah knows best.
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