Stopping a wife’s maintenance on the basis of suspicion

Question

Question: Begum Jani has been in the nikah of Yusuf Khan for fourteen years; they have five children. My husband accused me of adultery and, as proof, ordered me to take a ring out of hot local oil. Thank God, I came through this ordeal. Yet even after that he beats me without any fault of mine and abuses me; he has married a second time, and now for five years he has turned me and the children out of the house.

Answer

The method that was adopted for being cleared of the charge (taking a ring out of a hot pan) is wrong according to the Shari‘a. If there is no testimony to the offence, then according to the Shari‘a it suffices for clearing the one accused that he takes an oath.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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