treated within a period that does not cause the husband’s interests to be lost, then he has no right of annulment—especially where there was no deception. If there was deception, however, the deceiver should not be treated with the lighter and easier ruling, for he is not deserving of leniency.
As for urinary and fecal incontinence, any case that can be treated quickly, such that the husband’s interests are not lost, does not establish a right of annulment. Oozing sores in the genital area can clearly be treated; hemorrhoids can be treated; and a fistula can be treated, though it may recur. Castration, tuberculosis, and wijāʾ (the crushing of the testicles) cannot be treated. Likewise, where one of the spouses is a manifest hermaphrodite, this clearly cannot be remedied. But if a person has only a penis, while possessing all the characteristics of a woman apart from the sexual organ, and it is said that surgery can be performed on him quite easily, then the defect can be removed without any harm, so long as the genital passage is sound.
As for insanity, it is of two types. One type has a perceptible cause. Undoubtedly, if it is treated and the person recovers from it, there is no right of annulment. This is what people call al-wishrah: the head develops a rupture in its tissues, a rupture originating in the brain, after which the person begins to rave until he reaches the point of insanity. Yet it has a treatment, namely cauterization. They have methods by which they determine the site of the rupture: they place soft dough over it, and in the morning, if they find that the place of the rupture has become dry because of the vapor, they identify its location. If it is cauterized, then by Allah’s permission he recovers quickly, as though he had been released from a tether. Such a condition is not a defect, because it is an illness that can be removed.
The second type is that for which there is no treatment. This establishes a right of annulment, because there is no assurance that it will not return, and because the husband or wife may be reproached for it, and it may be said, “He married…”