, but say, “We have submitted,” for faith has not yet entered your hearts. If you obey Allah and His Messenger, He will not diminish the reward of your deeds in the least. Indeed, Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.’”

The Most High also says concerning the people of Lot:

“So We brought out those believers who were there.”

“But We found there only one household of Muslims.”

Some people have supposed that this verse implies that faith and Islam denote the same thing, and have regarded the two passages as contradictory. This is not so. Rather, this verse agrees with the first, for Allah states that He brought out those who were believers there, and that He found only one household of Muslims. Lot’s wife was among the members of the household who were there, but she was not among those brought out and saved. Rather, she was among those who remained behind to suffer the punishment. Outwardly, she sided with her husband and followed his religion, but inwardly she sided with her people and followed theirs, betraying her husband by alerting her people to his guests.

As Allah Most High says concerning her:

“Allah sets forth an example for those who disbelieve: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot. They were married to two righteous servants of Ours, but betrayed them.”

Their betrayal of their husbands concerned religion, not marital fidelity, for no prophet’s wife has ever committed adultery. “Marriage to a disbelieving woman” may be permissible under some revealed laws, and our own law permits marriage to certain categories of such women, namely women of the People of the Book. As for “marriage to an unchaste woman,” this amounts to tolerating sexual immorality in one’s wife. Allah has safeguarded prophets from tolerating such conduct.

Thus, the correct view is that of those jurists who hold that marriage to an unchaste woman is forbidden until she repents.