Marriage
What is the best thing in this world?
Nabi ﷺ named one thing as the best this world has to offer. It is not money, and it is not status.
Out of everything in this world, Nabi ﷺ picked one thing and called it the best.
Not money. Not a big house. Not status. Not comfort.
He said the whole world is something you use and enjoy for a while, and the best thing in it is a righteous wife.
What does that mean?
Everything in this world is on loan. You use it for a while, and then it is gone.
The car, the salary, the house, the phone. All of it is just provision, something to get you through.
And out of all of it, the best thing a person can be given is a good wife.
Sisters, this is not a small thing
A lot of wives feel unseen.
Some work a full day and then come home to more. Some give their whole day to the home and the children. Either way, so much of what they carry goes unnoticed.
It is easy to start thinking you are only a wife.
Nabi ﷺ did not see it that way. He put a righteous wife above everything else this world has to offer.
That is not a compliment from a friend. That is a ranking from the Prophet ﷺ.
What makes a wife righteous?
Not her looks. Not her money. Not the family she comes from.
Nabi ﷺ said a woman is married for four things: her money, her family, her beauty and her religion. Then he said to choose the one with religion.
Righteous does not mean perfect. It means her deen is real, and you can see it in how she lives and how she treats people. (More on that in how to actually check someone's deen.)
How Nabi ﷺ spoke about his own wife
Khadijah was his first wife. She believed in him before anyone else did.
Years after she died, he still talked about her all the time. When he slaughtered a sheep, he would send some of the meat to her old friends.
His wife Aishah said she was never as jealous of anyone as she was of Khadijah, even though she never met her, because of how often he mentioned her.
That is what it looks like when a man knows what he has.
Brothers, this part is for you
If a righteous wife is the best thing in this world, she deserves the best of you.
Not the time that is left over after work, your phone and your friends have had theirs.
Nabi ﷺ said, “The best of you is the best to his wives, and I am the best of you to my wives.”
So the way you treat her at home is not separate from your deen. It is part of it.
One last thing
Sisters, if nobody has thanked you in a while, remember that Nabi ﷺ already named a righteous wife the best of this world.
Brothers, if you have one, you already have the best thing this world can give you. Tell her. Today.
Source: Sahih Muslim 1467; Sunan an-Nasa’i 3232; Sahih al-Bukhari 5090; Sahih al-Bukhari 3818; Jami` at-Tirmidhi 3895
SM
Everything in this post comes from the Quran and the hadith listed above. I only put it in plain words. If you want to talk about anything in this post, write to me at salam@sunnahdaily.com.
For a ruling on your own situation, please speak to a qualified local scholar. You are welcome to email me about it as well, and I will help if I can, or point you to someone who can.