but the accuser is subject to discretionary punishment. An exception is the husband: he may accuse his wife of adultery if she has committed it without becoming pregnant as a result. If she becomes pregnant through adultery and gives birth, he must accuse her and disavow paternity of her child, lest someone who is not his offspring be attributed to him. If he accuses her, she either admits to adultery or undergoes the prescribed mutual imprecation with him, as Allah has set out in the Quran and the Sunnah.

If the accuser is a slave, he receives half the prescribed punishment imposed on a free person. The same applies to flogging for unlawful sexual intercourse and drinking wine, for Allah Most High says concerning slave women:

“If they commit sexual immorality, their punishment is half that of free women.”

However, when the required punishment is execution or amputation of the hand, it cannot be halved.

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Marital rights are also among these rights. Disputes between spouses must therefore be judged according to what Allah Most High has commanded: retaining the marriage on equitable terms or releasing the wife with kindness. Each spouse must willingly and wholeheartedly fulfil the other’s rights.

A wife has a financial right over her husband: her bridal payment and reasonable maintenance. She also has a right over his person: marital companionship and sexual enjoyment. Thus, if he swears to abstain from intercourse with her, she is entitled to separation, by the consensus of the Muslims. Likewise, if his penis has been amputated or he is impotent and unable to have intercourse with her, she is entitled to separation. According to most scholars, having intercourse with her is an obligation upon him.