who neglects her rights and mistreats her. For this reason, the jurists agree that suitability in religious commitment must be taken into account and that its absence establishes a right to annul the marriage. They differ, however, over whether a marriage is valid without it. These are two well-known positions in the school of Ahmad and elsewhere.

A man who marries a woman while she continues to commit unlawful sexual intercourse has accepted sharing her with other men and has accepted for himself the role of a procurer and a husband who condones his wife’s sexual immorality. If a woman marries a man who commits unlawful sexual intercourse with other women, he does not reserve his semen for her alone; rather, he deposits it in her and in prostitutes besides her. She is thus like a woman who commits unlawful sexual intercourse and takes a secret lover. One purpose of marriage is to reserve a man’s semen for his wife, whereas this man does not do so. Allah, Glorified is He, has stipulated that men must be chaste, not given to unlawful sexual intercourse. He says:

“And all women beyond these are lawful for you, provided that you seek them with your wealth in marriage, not in unlawful sexual intercourse.”

This point must not be overlooked, for the Quran has expressly stated it and set it out as a binding prescription, as the Most High says:

“A surah which We have sent down and made binding.”

As for the prohibition on marrying a woman who commits unlawful sexual intercourse, jurists among Ahmad’s followers and others have discussed it, and reports concerning it have been transmitted from the early generations. Although the jurists have disputed this matter, those who permit it have no reliable basis for doing so. Some have claimed that this verse is abrogated by His words:

“And chaste women”