Islam Question and Answer - Is it permissible for him to stay in the same house with his divorced wife?

Is it permissible for him to stay in the same house with his divorced wife?

Can a man live with his divorced wife in one house in order to look after the children?.

 

Praise be to Allaah.

If a man has
given his wife the last of three divorces (talaaq), or he has divorced her
once or twice and her ‘iddah has ended, then she becomes a “stranger” to him
(non-mahram) and it is not permissible for him to be alone with her or to
touch her or look at her. 

Undoubtedly
if they stay in the same house, it will be difficult for him to adhere to
these shar’i guidelines such as not being alone with her and her having to
observe hijab before him as with all other non-mahram men, unless the house
is large and it is possible to section off a part of it for him, with
separate facilities and a separate entrance for him. But if they are both in
one house, with the same entrance and the same facilities, then it will be
very difficult to avoid the haraam things mentioned above. 

Shaykh
al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: The woman who has
been thrice divorced is a stranger to the man like all other non-mahram
women, so the man cannot be alone with her, just as he cannot be alone with
any other non-mahram woman, and he cannot look at her, just as he cannot
look at any other non-mahram woman. End quote from al-Fataawa al-Kubra
(3/349) 

The Standing
Committee for Issuing Fatwas was asked: My father got sick and went into
hospital. After he came out, he got sick again and had his lower leg
amputated. Praise be to Allaah for the decree of Allaah. Then he became
paralyzed and cannot sit up. He is with me in my house … he asked my mother
who is married to him, he said: You are divorced. Then he said: Forgive me
and I will forgive you. My mother is still in the house and she cleans him
because he is unable to go to the toilet, and she feeds him, because we are
all at school and at work. 

They
replied: 

If this
divorce was a third divorce, then it is not permissible for your mother to
stay with him and uncover him and touch him, because she is a stranger
(non-mahram) to him. But if the divorce mentioned was a first or second
divorce, then your mother is regarded as recovably divorced, and he may take
her back so long as her ‘iddah has not ended, and she has the same rights as
any other wife. She may serve your father and touch him. But if her ‘iddah
has ended and he did not take her back by saying words to that effect or
having intercourse with her during the ‘iddah period, then she is a stranger
to him, and it is not permissible for her to stay with him and for him to be
alone with her, unless a new marriage contract is done. End quote. 

Fataawa
al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (20/226) 

And Allaah
knows best.

Islam Q&A