What are the rights of a woman in her marriage? The question is asked often, and the books in my library answer it by laying a foundation first: a wife’s rights do not stand alone. They stand beside her husband’s rights, each spouse owing the other what is theirs. The details of her rights, her maintenance, her mahr [the dowry given to the wife at the time of marriage], her own property, are treated on their own pages of this site, and this page points to each of them. What it gathers here, in the scholars’ own words, is the foundation those pages rest on.
I gathered this page from two books in my library: the abridged Tafsir Ibn Kathir, at the verse of mutual rights in Surah al-Baqarah and at the verse of repose in Surah ar-Rum; and Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen’s Explanation of Riyad as-Salihin, at the hadith in which Mu’awiyah asked what right a wife can demand of her husband. Their words are quoted word for word. Everything else on this page is my own summary of what they say, and the references at the end show where each passage stands.
The Foundation: Rights That Run Both Ways
Allah states the foundation in Surah al-Baqarah (2:228), where He grants women rights like the rights held over them, measured by what is equitable. The wording of the verse, and Shaykh as-Sa’di’s explanation of it, stand on this site’s page on the rights and obligations of men and women. Ibn Kathir gives this part of his explanation of the verse its own heading, “The Rights the Spouses have over Each Other”, and he states the principle in one sentence:
This Ayah indicates that the wife has certain rights on her husband, just as he has certain rights on her, and each is obliged to give the other spouse his due rights.
In the same passage, Ibn Kathir reports how Ibn ‘Abbas, the Prophet’s ﷺ cousin and a scholar among his Companions, put the principle into practice in his own marriage:
Waki’ related that Ibn ‘Abbas said, “I like to take care of my appearance for my wife just as I like for her to take care of her appearance for me. This is because Allah says: (And they (women) have rights similar (to those of their husbands) over them to what is reasonable.)” This statement is reported by Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abu Hatim.
Between those two passages, Ibn Kathir also sets down the Prophet’s ﷺ words at the Farewell Pilgrimage, “Fear Allah regarding women”, and Mu’awiyah’s question about the wife’s right. Both hadiths are quoted on this site’s page on maintenance, from this same book, and they are not repeated here.
Repose, Love and Compassion
The marriage itself, as Allah describes it in Surah ar-Rum (30:21), is the setting of these rights: He created spouses from among yourselves, made the wife a place of repose for her husband, and placed love and compassion between the two of them. The verse and its purposes are gathered on this site’s page on the purpose of marriage. Explaining the repose in that verse, Ibn Kathir writes:
Out of Allah’s perfect mercy He made their wives from their own kind, and created love and kindness between them. For a man stays with a woman because he loves her, or because he feels compassion towards her if they have a child together, or because she needs him to take care of her, etc.
Love, compassion, and being taken care of: these are not additions to the marriage from outside it. In Ibn Kathir’s explanation they are what Allah Himself created between the spouses, and the rights gathered on this site’s pages protect them.
Provided For, as He Provides for Himself
Her first material right is her maintenance: her food, her clothing, and her housing, owed by her husband and measured by what he is able to give. Its evidence, the verse of Surah an-Nisa (4:34), Mu’awiyah’s hadith, and the ruling for the wife whose husband withholds it, is gathered on this site’s page on nafaqah [maintenance]. Here, one passage from the explanation of that same hadith shows what stands behind the right. Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen, explaining the hadith in Riyad as-Salihin, writes:
That is, do not cloth yourself while depriving her, nor feed yourself while neglecting her. Rather, she is your partner, so it is essential for you to spend on her as you spend on yourself. Even, some scholars stated that if a man is not taking care of his wife, she can call for the dissolution of the marriage in court. Then, it becomes obligatory for the judge to dissolve it because he has fallen short of her right, the obligations towards her.
She is his partner, and she is spent on as he spends on himself. And her right is not left to his goodwill: where he falls short of it, the scholars Ibn Uthaymeen reports gave her a way to seek its end through a judge.
Each Right on Its Own Page
From that foundation, the books treat each of her rights in its place, and this site has a page for each one. Her mahr is hers from the marriage contract itself: it is given to her graciously and in full, little or much, and it may not be taken back from her; that is set out on the page on the mahr in Islam. What she earns, what she is given, and what she inherits are her own property, not her husband’s, as the page on a woman’s own property shows. She is not married without her consent, and the contract has conditions that protect her, as the pages on the conditions of a valid marriage and on forced marriage set out. His rights over her and hers over him, kind treatment, the protection of her dignity and her privacy, and the rule that neither spouse may harm the other, stand side by side on the page on the rights and obligations of men and women. And if a marriage reaches the point where she cannot remain in it, the books give her the khula’ [release from the marriage at the wife’s request, by returning what she was given], treated on its own page, and they bind the husband who takes another wife to fairness between them, treated on the page on polygyny.
References
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged): Darussalam, Second Edition, October 2003 (Surah al-Baqarah 2:228, compilation PDF pp. 566-567; Surah ar-Rum 30:21, compilation PDF p. 3884).
Explanation of Riyad as-Salihin, Vol. 3: Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen; Darussalam, 2018 (Hadeeth 277, printed pp. 154-155).
Further Reading
- The Rights and Obligations of Men and Women in Islam: his rights and hers side by side: maintenance, kind treatment, dignity and privacy, obedience in what is good, and the rule of no harm.
- Nafaqah: The Wife’s Right to Maintenance in Islam: her food, clothing and housing as his obligation, measured by his means, and her remedy when he withholds it.
- The Mahr in Islam: the dowry that is hers from the contract, given graciously and in full, and never taken back.
- A Woman’s Own Property in Islam: what she earns, is given, and inherits is her own, and she answers for her own wealth.
- The Conditions of a Valid Marriage (Nikah): the guardian, the witnesses, and her consent, without which the contract does not stand.
- Does Islam Allow Forced Marriage?: her consent is part of the contract, and the choice given to the woman who was married against her will.
- The Woman’s Right to Khula’: her release from a marriage she cannot remain in, and what she returns for it.
- Polygyny in Islam: the permission, its conditions, and the fairness a husband owes between wives.
Verified on 2026-10-24 against the books listed above.