Moreover, when he commits adultery with other men’s wives, those men seek to commit adultery with his wives, as actually happens. Thus, an adulterer’s wife is led into adultery in many ways. If she regards as lawful what Allah has forbidden, she becomes a polytheist. Even if she does not commit adultery with her private parts, she does so with her eyes and in other ways. Among the wives of men who persist in illicit intercourse without repenting, scarcely any woman is known to remain entirely untainted. A woman’s nature draws her towards other men when she sees her husband going to other women. It is stated in the hadith:

“Be dutiful to your fathers, and your children will be dutiful to you; remain chaste, and your wives will remain chaste.”

Thus, His statement, “A fornicator marries none but a woman who fornicates,” may mean either that his very marriage to her and intercourse with her constitute fornication, or that this leads her to commit fornication. As for a woman who fornicates, having intercourse with her while she persists in fornication is itself fornication.

Likewise, “chaste women from among the believers” refers to free women. Ibn Abbās is also reported to have said: “They are chaste women.” Thus, Ibn Abbās has been reported to interpret muhsanāt as both free women and chaste women, and this is correct. We say that the evidence for this includes His statement, Exalted is He:

“They ask you what has been made lawful for them. Say, ‘Lawful for you are all good things and the game caught by the hunting animals you have trained, teaching them from what Allah has taught you. So eat of what they catch for you, and mention Allah’s name over it. And fear Allah; indeed, Allah is swift in reckoning.’”

“This day all good things have been made lawful for you. The food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. And lawful for you are chaste women from among the believers and chaste women from among those who were given the Scripture before you, provided that you give them their bridal dues, seeking chastity, not fornication.”

The Quran commentators have said that muhsanāt means chaste women. This was the view of al-Shaʿbī, al-Hasan, al-Nakhaʿī, al-Dahhāk, and al-Suddī. Ibn Abbās is reported to have said: “They are free women.” If the term muhsanāt is intended to mean “free women,” then chastity is all the more encompassed by the term, for the basic meaning of