A renowned Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has called on Islamic judges (Qadis) and clerics to ensure that women suffering from domestic abuse are granted the right to divorce their husbands without being compelled to pay any form of compensation.
Gumi made the call during his weekly Tafsir session at the Sultan Bello Mosque in Kaduna, where he addressed the topic, ‘How Wives in Islam Can Also Divorce Their Cruel Husbands Without Compensation’.
The cleric lamented the societal and judicial double standards that often make it easy for men to dissolve marriages while placing unfair hurdles before women seeking freedom from abuse, neglect, or humiliation.
“A husband can simply utter the words and end a marriage, but when a woman seeks freedom from an abusive man, she is made to suffer further by being told to pay compensation,” Gumi stated, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.
“That is injustice, and Islam stands firmly against oppression.”
Drawing references from Al-Mukhtasar Al-Khalil, a key Maliki jurisprudence text, and the Holy Qur’an, Gumi said Islam does not condone oppression and grants both partners the right to end a union when respect and compassion are lost.
He strongly criticised husbands who subject their wives to torture while refusing to release them from the marriage unless they pay through khul’ (a compensatory divorce initiated by the wife).
Gumi argued that an abusive husband forfeits any right to such compensation.
“When a husband insults, humiliates, or beats his wife, he forfeits the right to demand compensation,” he declared. “It becomes the duty of the judge to dissolve such a marriage immediately. No woman should be trapped in misery.”
The cleric urged Islamic judges to exercise courage and fairness to protect women from such treatment, stressing that an abused wife should not be made to “buy her freedom from a tormentor.”
“When a woman brings forward her case, the judge should be her knight in shining armour, freeing her from an oppressive husband without delay.”
Gumi, who spoke in Hausa, concluded that a healthy marriage is built on “kindness, mercy, and mutual respect.” Where these are absent, he said, either partner has the divine right to walk away in dignity, citing Qur’an 4:130: “And if they separate, Allah will render them both free from want out of His ampleness.”
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