No Compensation for Tormentors: Sheikh Gumi Calls on Islamic Judges to Immediately Grant Divorce to Abused Wives

A prominent Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, has issued a forceful call to Islamic judges and clerics to end a prevalent injustice faced by Muslim women seeking to escape abusive marriages. Speaking during his weekly Tafsir session in Kaduna on Monday, October 27, 2025, Gumi urged that women suffering from domestic abuse be granted the right to divorce their husbands without being forced to pay any form of financial compensation.

The cleric centered his address on the topic, “How Wives in Islam Can Also Divorce Their Cruel Husbands Without Compensation,” drawing on references from Maliki jurisprudence texts. He lamented the societal and judicial double standards that make it easy for a man to unilaterally dissolve a marriage, while a woman seeking freedom from an oppressive husband is often made to “suffer further by being told to pay compensation” in a practice known as khul’ (compensatory divorce).

“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. That is injustice, and Islam stands firmly against oppression,” Gumi stated.

He stressed that once a husband “insults, humiliates, or beats his wife, he forfeits the right to demand compensation.” In such cases, Gumi unequivocally declared: “It becomes the duty of the judge to dissolve such a marriage immediately. No woman should be trapped in misery.”

Gumi’s message is a direct challenge to the common practice of forcing abused wives to ‘buy their freedom,’ a move he insists is contrary to the spirit of justice in Islam. He urged Islamic judges (Qadis) to exercise courage and fairness to protect women from such unjust treatment, stating that the justice system must act as her “knight in shining armour” to free her from an oppressive marriage without delay.