Who’s in Charge of the Wife’s Medical Expenses?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

After some research, I found out that many say that the wife’s medical bills/hospital care aren’t the husband’s responsibility and that he doesn’t have to take care of them financially. Could you please explain this topic in more depth?

A stay-at-home wife with no job has no other family members to help her; what can she do to find a solution? Her husband also doesn’t allow her to work to pay for her medical care, but he also refuses to help her out because it’s not his obligation; what can she do to help herself out? Thank you in advance, Jazak Allahu Khairan

Answer

I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.

The established position in the Hanafi school and others is that the general medical expenses of the wife’s—treatment, visiting a doctor, buying medicine, and so on—are not obligatory for the husband, even if he has the financial means.

Letter of the Law

It means that it is not enforceable by law, nor will he be sinful; however, all agree that it is the dictates of good character that he pays it.

The Sharia does not conceive of the wife as being entirely ‘dependent’ financially on her husband; instead, she is expected to have her own finances and the ability to spend on herself beyond the obligatory spending on the husband.

[Ibn ʿAbidin, Radd al-Muhtar]

Spirit of the Law

However, a practical answer: a husband in such a situation should remember that our beloved Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) was the most generous of all people. He said, “The generous person is close to Allah, people, and Paradise. The miserly person is far from Allah, far from people, far from Paradise, and close to the Fire.” [Tirmidhi]

Our religion teaches us to help the poor and the sick when they are strangers; how should it then be with one’s wife?

I would like you to go through the valuable answers and links below. You will receive guidance and direction in sha Allah.

Provision and Work: A Reader – SeekersGuidance

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I pray this helps with your question.

[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally-trained scholar who has studied within UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan and Turkey.

He started his early education in UK. He went onto complete hifz of Qur’an in India, then enrolled into an Islamic seminary in UK where he studied the secular and Alimiyyah sciences. He then travelled to Karachi, Pakistan.

He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for a number of years. He has taught hifz of the Qur’an, Tajwid, Fiqh and many other Islamic sciences to both children and adults onsite and online extensively in UK and Ireland. He was teaching at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences.

He currently resides in UK with his wife. His personal interest is love of books and gardening.