Having multiple wives living in the same house

1-6-2005 | IslamWeb

Question:

a person having two wives, and again married the third wife and put them in the house, having separate rooms, but the third wife always not feeling comfortable living with them due to their approaches and sometime saying to her some unfavorable words, she reported such cases to her husband and the husband intended to discuss with them on the issue but she advice him not to, with the fear not to generate more unhappiness in the house, but appealing for a separate apartment. Please advice the husband what to do?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

 

It is the right of a wife to ask her husband to offer her a separate accommodation, and it is not permissible for him to force her to dwell with his parents or relatives, let alone obliging her to live with his other wives. Therefore, we advise this husband to endeavour as much as he can to acquire a separate accommodation for his wife as it is her right and since she asked him for it. If he is unable to buy an accommodation for her, he can rent a house for her, and if he is absolutely unable to provide her with a separate accommodation then he has to at least protect her from the harm of his other wives. If she does not agree for him to do the latter out of fear that this would worsen the situation, then she has to be patient until Allaah makes it easy for her husband to provide her with a separate accommodation. It means the residence that  fulfills her basic needs as we mentioned in our Fatwa:83207

If this woman reaches the point where she can no longer bear the harm and her husband is unable to offer her a separate accommodation, then she is allowed to ask for a divorce because of the harm.

Allaah knows best.