The difference between a Jewish or Christian wife and a wife who does not pray

 

I read a fatwa which you issued to a Muslim man whose Muslim wife does not pray, and you told him that he had to divorce her. I know that it is permissible for a Muslim man to have a Jewish or Christian wife, and Jewish and Christian women do not pray. Is there some mistake?.

Praise be to Allaah.

There is no
mistake in the fatwa referred to. Rather the mistake comes from the
questioner wanting to regard as equal a woman who is supposedly Muslim but
does not pray and a woman who is Jewish or Christian, on the basis that
neither of them prays. 

This
regarding them as equal is not valid, because there is a difference between
them, which is that not praying is major kufr and apostasy that puts a
person beyond the pale of Islam. This has been explained in many answers on
this site, such as the answers to questions no.
9400 and
5208. 

Based on
this, the woman who does not pray is a kaafir and an apostate from Islam. 

The ruling
on one who has apostatized from Islam is more severe than the ruling on a
Jew or Christian. 

Shaykh
al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said: 

The apostate
is worse than a kaafir in many ways. End quote. 

Majmoo’
al-Fataawa, 2/193 

Hence meat
slaughtered by an apostate cannot be eaten, whereas meat slaughtered by a
Jew or Christian may be eaten. It is not permissible for a Muslim to marry
an apostate woman, and if his wife apostatizes, the marriage contract
becomes null and void, but it is permissible for a Muslim to marry a Jewish
or Christian woman. 

The crux of
the matter is the ruling that one who does not pray is a kaafir. Those who
are of this view forbade marriage to a woman who does not pray, and said
that it is obligatory to leave a woman if she stops praying. This is the
view of Imam Ahmad (may Allaah have mercy on him) and was stated in fatwas
by a number of scholars, such as Shaykh Ibn Baaz (may Allaah have mercy on
him), Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) and Shaykh Saalih
al-Fawzaan (may Allaah preserve him). Our fatwa on this issue and similar
issues is based on their fatwas.  

Similarly,
if a woman does something that implies kufr, such as vilifying Allaah, may
He be exalted, or vilifying His Messenger (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him), and she persists in her kufr and does not repent, then
it is not permissible for her to remain the wife of a Muslim. The same
applies if a husband is ruled to be an apostate, then he and his wife must
be separated. 

And Allaah
knows best.