The wife says: “If you divorce me, I will apostatize”

Question

Question: Zayd converted a girl to Islam and married her, and now, owing to the pressure of circumstances, he wants to divorce her. The girl threatens that if Zayd leaves her, she will leave Islam and adopt the Hindu religion of her forefathers. In such a case, will the sin of the girl’s apostasy (irtidad) be on Zayd? Will the responsibility for the apostasy be placed on Zayd? Will Zayd be compelled not to leave her in order to save the girl from apostasy, and is such pressure correct according to the Shari‘a?

Answer

The impression is that Zayd did not convert this girl to Islam out of hatred of kufr and love of Islam, but out of love for the girl herself; and this girl, too, did not accept Islam out of hatred of kufr and love of Islam, but out of love for this young man. And Allah knows best the reality of the situation.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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