then he is among the people of the worst standing. So how could this merely be disliked?! Usually, when someone does this—just as he has exposed his wife, she will expose him as well, saying among the women, “He did such-and-such to me; he did such-and-such to me,” and so on. The correct view regarding this matter is that it is prohibited. Indeed, to say that it is among the major sins would be closer to the purport of the text. A person is not permitted to speak about what took place between him and his wife. This is one of the slips of some scholars, may Allah have mercy on them.

If someone were to say: Did not Umar ibn Abi Salamah, may Allah be pleased with him, ask the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, about a man kissing his wife while fasting, and he replied, “Ask this woman,” whereupon she said, “The Messenger of Allah would kiss while fasting”? (1) We say: Kissing is not like intercourse. Moreover, he did not speak about a specific incident; rather, he spoke about kissing in general. This is like a man saying, for example, that he has intercourse with his wife but does not ejaculate, so he performs ghusl. Thus, there is a difference between speaking about a general category and speaking about a particular act, and people recognize the difference between the two.

If someone were to describe a commendable manner of intercourse—since there are many forms of intercourse, some commendable and others not—without attributing it to his wife, saying, for example, “Some people do such-and-such during intercourse,” then this is permissible, unless those present understand that he is referring to himself; in that case, it is prohibited.

His statement: “It is prohibited to house his two wives in a single dwelling without their consent.”