Q: My father has married our old housemaid secretly two years ago. We have recently found this out.
I have been financing his house and my own house for the last eight years. I have two disabled sisters and my mother in his household while I have my own daughter and husband in my household. I have been bearing the expenses of both the houses because my father told me he is saving money for our future. He has now spent all his savings on his second wife while I continue to finance his house as I have been doing. He does not pay a single dirham to my mother or myself for anything and his demands increase every day. He is also very verbally abusive.
My three day old son died and he made my pregnancy very stressful by his constant fighting and he fought very badly with me a week after my son died. He tells me that taking care of my sisters and himself is my Islamic duty and that he has finished fulfilling his Islamic duty before he got a second wife.
He is now only financing his second wife while he continues to stay with us. He is also selling the property that I thought I would inherit one day and he insists I have no right on that property as well. He is building a house for his second wife in her name.
Please advise me, from an Islamic point of view, what is my duty in this situation? Is what I am doing my Islamic duty? Will I punished in the afterlife for withdrawing financial support for my disabled sisters and mother? How am I supposed to deal with my father's behaviour in the view of Islam?
A: You are not responsible to finance his second wife. Don't get into arguments and show respect.
According to your means, support your mother and sisters.
And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
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