Visual impairment or blindness does not entail the wife to choose whether to maintain marriage or annul it

13-1-2014 | IslamWeb

Question:

I married my cousin about seven years ago. Before I was married, but after the engagement, I suffered from retinal bleeding, underwent surgery, and lost sight in my left eye. A few months after the operation we got married, but I never told her about my loss of vision. For a while after the surgery, I used to see blurred images. Now we have been living together and we have two daughters. I have a job, as thanks to Allaah my sight loss does not affect my working ability.My question is: up to this moment, I have not told my wife of my vision loss, though she knows that I underwent surgery and used to know go to the ophthalmologist from time to time; she also knows that I lost most of my eyesight in my left eye. Is it a sin to hide this fact from my wife? Should I tell her after all these years, given that I do not know what will happen if I told her?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His Slave and Messenger.

 

Visual impairment or blindness does not entail the spouses to choose whether to maintain the marriage or annul it. Ibn Qudaamah elaborated on this topic in his book Al-Mughni: “… Apart from this, these cases do not entail the spouses to choose whether to maintain marriage or annul it such as: boldness, blindness, lameness, and loss of hands and feet; for this does not prevent the other spouse from sexual enjoyment, and is not contagious. There is no difference among scholars in this regard.”

Hence, you do not have to tell your wife that you have vision loss; however, it is permissible for you to tell her unless this would harm or jeopardize your marital life.

Allaah Knows best.