Dubai: A Saudi resident reportedly divorced his wife despite being married to her for six years and having a child with her, after learning that his father was secretly married to her 10 years earlier.
According to Saudi media reports, Abdullah Al Mutlaq, adviser at the Saudi Royal Court and a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, issued a fatwa on a case that caught the public attention about a man marrying his father’s ex-wife unknowlingly and having a child from her.
Al Mutlaq’s fatwa stipulated the man must divorce his wife, stressing that the son is legitimate; but both the man and his wife's marriage is not.
The saga began when the young man got married to a woman he fell in love with under a 'misyar' contract and did not tell his family of his marriage. Six years on, he decided to tell his family.
He brought the latter to his family’s house to introduce her to his parents. Upon seeing the son’s wife, the husband’s father startled everyone by saying he was married to the woman under a 'misyar' contract 10 years earlier and had broken up with her a while later.
What is misyar marriage?
Misyar marriage is a type of marriage contract in Sunni Islam in which the woman waives some of the rights she would have in a normal Islamic marriage. This sometimes takes place when, for example, there are many women who, as they get older, find it increasingly difficult to marry.
In this case, a woman opts for a husband who is not able to fulfil normal marital duties like financial maintenance, or spending adequate time with her, for example. She considers that marrying him might be better than remaining unmarried.
In Islam, the ex-wives of fathers and grandfathers are not allowed to marry sons and grandsons regardless of whether they bore children to the father and grandfathers or not.
