A wife who is divorced without reason can demand mutaah from her ex-husband

A woman known as Zafirah Khairuddin was divorced with one declaration of talak for no clear reason.

She had long thought about what went wrong with her husband known as Safwan Sidek, for him to decide to divorce her.

The marriage was so short-lived and lasted for only three years.

From their marriage, they were blessed with a cute daughter who was only two years old at the time of the divorce.

After the divorce was confirmed, Zafirah did not hesitate to file a mutaah claim against her ex-husband.

She believed it was her rights due to the sudden divorce, even more so when she had sacrificed and contributed a lot to the family during their marriage.

Zafirah had never thought about separating with her husband. She even refused to be divorced but Safwan insisted to end their marriage with reason of having no mutual understanding, when in fact, they never argued thoroughout the marriage.

She eventually had to accept her fate due to Safwan's determined actions.

Despite that, Safwan who worked as entrepreneur and owned five companies, all matters related to childcare, including the nursery fees were managed by Zafirah who worked as a senior executive in a private company.

Zafirah had never complained during their marriage even when they had to go back and forth between her parents' house and her in-laws' house because the small family did not own their own house.

In her claim, Zafirah demanded mutaah of RM200,000 from Safwan as she believed her ex-husband could meet the demand considering his job as an entrepreneur.

However, she could not hand over supporting documents to prove Safwan's business were going well.

Even so, Safwan admitted that the five companies had been registered but was not active as they were used to transmit political funds and some of them had been shut down.

After examining all testimonies and capabilities of her ex-husband, the Sharia court ruled that Zafirah was eligible to receive mutaah amounting to RM15,000 in installments, which is RM500 per month for 30 months.

Although it was saddening that her family could not be saved, the mutaah she received could cure her heartbreak to some extent.

Mutaah restores women's spirit after divorce Syarie lawyer Nurain Akmal Khairunnisa Amir Hamzah commented that it was indeed Zafirah Khairuddin's rights to claim mutaah after the divorce, especially when she was divorced for no reason.

The mutaah was considered a consolation gift to the wife who had sacrificed and carried out her responsibility as Safwan Sidek's wife for three years.

She defined mutaah as a consolation payment by the ex-husband to the ex-wife after their divorce, either in the form of money or goods.

"Since the divorce is not the wife's fault, mutaah is considered mandatory payment.

"There is no specific guide used as a fixed formula to decide the rate of mutaah given to the divorced wife," she told Sinar Islam Plus recently.

The sharia law practitioner explained the general principle was to gift an amount based on the husband's ability, the spouse's status, duration of marriage and the wife's sacrifice.

"The purpose of mutaah is to restore the ex-wife's spirit due to the divorce, preserve her dignity and honor as well as helping the ex-wife to build a life after the divorce.

"Additionally, it can also reduce her burden besides the mutaah was considered as a sign of appreciation from the ex-husband to the ex-wife for all the sacrifices she made during their marriage and to avoid prejudices that the wife had caused the divorce," she explained.

Nurain Akmal Khairunnisa said mutaah rate was calculated and determined when the divorce took place and not when mutaah claim was made.