The rights of the wife in the Holy Quran and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The family is considered the basic unit of the Islamic society, and it is one of the destinations of marriage, so the Holy Qur’an gave big care to it, and took great care of it. Since the wife is the mainstay of the family, she has financial and non-financial rights, whether related to alimony, dowry, housing or choosing a husband, in addition to good cohabitation, not harming her, and her right to justice between wives. The Holy Qur’an addressed it more than fourteen centuries ago. This study dealt with the extrapolation of Qur’an verses that talk about the financial and non-financial rights of the wife, in addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international conventions and instruments. It uses the opinions of interpreters and jurists, and examined the clarification of these rights, their importance, and the conditions that must be met by the wife’s entitlement to these rights.

The importance of this topic lies in the study of the wife’s rights, as she is today the basis for building the family, and what she has rights owed to the husband must be taken into account and provided to her according to what was stated in the Holy Qur’an, and since the origin of the marital relationship is affection and mercy, and what is meant by the rights of the wife is that the husband provides all his rights in accordance with the provisions of the Holy Qur’an for the wife in addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international conventions and instruments. The approach followed by the study is the comparative approach, which is based on extrapolating Qur’an verses about the rights of the wife and comparing them with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international conventions and instruments.

We have reached several results, the most prominent of which is that the Holy Qur’an gave the wife financial and non-financial rights in a clear and precise manner that does not accept diligence or interpretation, and was a forerunner in clarifying these rights, as it came with regulations and controls that were characterized by precedence, obligatory, depth and comprehensiveness, guarantee and protection, as the fixed indications in the humanitarian approach drawn up by the Holy Qur’an, it was creative in protecting the right of the wife in particular, as the Holy Qur’an came and approved these rights intellectually and practically. It also dealt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international conventions and instruments.