prostitutes.

He is saying: “If you marry them as you used to do, without believing this to be forbidden, you are idolaters; but if you believe it to be forbidden, you are guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse.” For such a woman allows men other than her husband to have intercourse with her, while her husband continues to have intercourse with her just as they do. Any woman whose sexual partners are two men is guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse, for sexual access cannot be shared; rather, a wife must be chaste.

Thus, since a man who marries a woman who engages in unlawful sexual intercourse is himself guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse, people condemn him. Indeed, they condemn him more severely than someone who commits unlawful sexual intercourse with women from other households. Hence, when describing an insult, people say, “He reviled him with zāy and qāf”—meaning that he called him, “You husband of a whore!” This is among the gravest insults people exchange, because the reprehensibility of such conduct is firmly established among Muslims. How, then, could it be permissible?

For this reason, accusing a woman of unlawful sexual intercourse also impugns her husband. If he were permitted to marry a prostitute, such an accusation would not impugn him. Hence the statement made by some of the early generations: “No prophet’s wife ever committed unlawful sexual intercourse.” Allah Most High allowed the prophets to marry unbelieving women, but did not allow them to marry prostitutes, because the latter undermine the purpose of marriage, unlike unbelieving women.

For this reason, Allah allowed a man whose wife commits unlawful sexual intercourse to swear the oaths of imprecation instead of producing four witnesses, and waived the prescribed punishment against him upon his taking those oaths, because of the harm her conduct causes him. The hadith states:

“A cuckold will not enter Paradise.”

A man who marries a prostitute is a cuckold. Allah has instilled in all His believing servants a natural disposition to condemn and reproach such a man for this—indeed, even in non-Muslims, whether People of the Book or others: they all condemn a man whose