their anuses.” Allah Most High has said:
“Your wives are a place of cultivation for you, so approach your place of cultivation however you wish.”
The “place of cultivation” is where a child is conceived, for cultivation takes place where things are planted and sown. The Jews used to say, “If a man approaches his wife from behind, the child will be cross-eyed.” Allah therefore revealed this verse and permitted a man to approach his wife from any direction, but only for vaginal intercourse. If he has anal intercourse with her and she willingly complies, both are to receive discretionary punishment. If they do not desist, they are to be separated, just as a man who engages in sexual immorality is separated from the person with whom he does so. And Allah knows best.
He—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—was asked:
What is required of someone who has anal intercourse with his wife? Has any scholar permitted it?
He replied:
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of all worlds. Anal intercourse is forbidden by the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This is the position of the overwhelming majority of Muslim imams, including the Companions, the Successors, and others. Allah has said in His Book:
“Your wives are a place of cultivation for you, so approach your place of cultivation however you wish.”
It is established in the authentic hadith collection that the Jews used to say, “If a man has vaginal intercourse with his wife from behind, the child will be cross-eyed.” The Muslims asked the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—about this, whereupon Allah revealed this verse:
“Your wives are a place of cultivation for you, so approach your place of cultivation however you wish.”
A “place of cultivation” is where seeds are sown. A child is conceived only in the vagina, not in the anus. “So approach your place of cultivation” means the place where a child is conceived. “However you wish” means from whichever direction you wish: from in front of her, from behind her, from her right, or from her left. Allah Most High thus called women a place of cultivation and permitted intercourse only in those places of cultivation; and cultivation can only take place