A husband working as his wife’s employee

Question

Question: Hinda owns a factory in which there are many employees. Her husband is poor. Hinda wants to employ her husband as a guard; she does not want to take that work from him without a salary, nor does he want to do that work. Should he take up this employment or not? If he should, will this not entail “inverting the established order” (qalb al-mawdu‘)? And if not, what is the Shar‘i and rational proof?

Answer

It is not permissible for a husband to take such employment with his wife as entails his humiliation and degradation, because it entails “inverting the established order”. Likewise, employment in work that was incumbent on the husband even without employment is not permissible.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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