have intercourse with her in this state, for the Prophet ﷺ forbade intercourse with a pregnant woman until she gives birth. (1) The point of this is that if she has a husband, we do not tell him, for example, to avoid her if she commits fornication. Rather, we say: You may have intercourse with her, and you are not required to avoid her—unless her pregnancy becomes apparent, in which case you must not have intercourse with her. But if no pregnancy is apparent, then she is lawful for you.

If someone were to say: Is it not possible that she became pregnant through illicit intercourse?

We reply: That possibility exists, but the Prophet ﷺ said: “The child belongs to the marital bed, and the adulterer receives nothing but deprivation.” (2) So long as we are not certain that she became pregnant by the fornicator, the child is deemed to belong to the marital bed. If she becomes pregnant by the fornicator and we tell her husband not to have intercourse with her, he may nevertheless enjoy intimacy with her short of intercourse, because she is his wife. Intercourse is prohibited only so that he does not irrigate another man's crop with his own water.