🕊️ Conflict & resolution · #64
May I secretly record my spouse's quarrels or threats as evidence?
To protect yourself from wrongdoing such as threats or violence, keeping evidence is permitted and often advised; but recording to humiliate or expose your spouse is not permitted.
Allah allows the one who has been wronged to speak of the wrong done to them (an-Nisa' 4:148), and forbids spying and exposing others' faults (al-Hujurat 49:12). So the purpose determines the ruling: a recording kept safely and handed only to the police, a lawyer or the court to obtain protection is different from one shared with family or on social media. Whether a recording is admitted as evidence is for the court to decide. Also keep dated notes, messages and medical reports. Put safety first: do not let the act of recording provoke violence. See the question on keeping evidence.
Allah allows the one who has been wronged to speak of the wrong done to them (an-Nisa' 4:148), and forbids spying and exposing others' faults (al-Hujurat 49:12). So the purpose determines the ruling: a recording kept safely and handed only to the police, a lawyer or the court to obtain protection is different from one shared with family or on social media. Whether a recording is admitted as evidence is for the court to decide. Also keep dated notes, messages and medical reports. Put safety first: do not let the act of recording provoke violence. See the question on keeping evidence.
Sources
Surah an-Nisa' 4:148Surah al-Hujurat 49:12Surah al-Ma'idah 5:8