Quraish Shihab: Wife Doesn't Have to Cook

 

Quraish Shihab: Wife Doesn't Have to Cook

Quraish Shihab explained that the wife is not obliged to cook. This was conveyed in a study by Shihab & Shihab with Rafi Ahmad and Nagita Slavina along with several other public figures .

At that time, Quraish Shihab was asked by Nagita Slavina regarding the rights that a wife must receive from her husband. Najwa Shihab's father then answered several things.

The following are the rights of wives according to Quraish Shihab :

Right to a place to live

Right to get food

Right to get clothes

Deserves to be respected

In addition to explaining some of the wife's rights which are the husband's obligations, the former Chancellor of UIN Syarif Hidayatulah Jakarta also mentioned several things that are not the wife's obligation, namely:

Wife doesn't have to cook

Wife is not obliged to work to meet household needs

Even so, Quraish Shihab said that the husband and wife relationship is not only limited to rights and obligations, but a cooperative relationship.

“However, the husband and wife relationship is not only a relationship of rights and obligations. The husband and wife relationship is a cooperative relationship," explained the former minister of religion during the Soeharto era.

Therefore, Quraish Shihab reminded that husband and wife can discuss in living a family life.

"The most beautiful sentence heard from a wife to her husband is not I love you, but I am proud of you, and when discussing, the most beautiful sentence heard by a husband is maybe you are right."

Quraish Shihab 's explanation is in accordance with the explanation in  Mausuah al-Fiqhiyyah al-Kuwaitiyyah  that many scholars state that a wife is not obliged to serve her husband, including one of them, it is not obligatory to cook for her husband.

 So the public (Shafi'is, Hanbalites, and some of the Malikis) were of the view that it is not obligatory for her to serve the husband, but the best reward is for her.

It means,  " Many scholars (Shafiiyah, Hanabilah, and some Malikiyah) are of the opinion that a wife is not obliged to serve her husband at home. But the most important thing is to do it as custom and custom develops.” 

However, according to Hanafiyah, the wife is obliged to serve her husband at home, based on the hadith related to the division of labor between husband and wife between Ali bin Abi Talib and Fatimah. At that time the prophet asked Ali to focus on working outside, while Fatimah took care of the household needs at home.

While according to Jumhur Malikiyah and Abu Tsaur, women still serve their husbands in their household needs according to prevailing custom.

Basically, both Hanafiyah and Jumhur ulama actually put more emphasis on the element of duty between husband and wife. So, according to the author, the division of labor does not always have to be a wife who cooks or a husband who works. This can be adjusted to the circumstances of each household.