is like one who witnessed it or committed it.”
The hadith also states:
“A person follows the religion of his close companion.”
The closest companionship is that between spouses. Moreover, Allah has instilled in human beings the well-known sense of protective jealousy: a man finds another man having intercourse with his wife more objectionable than his own sense of honor makes him find committing unlawful sexual intercourse himself. If he is not averse to his wife being sexually immoral, and condones her conduct, how would he be averse to committing unlawful sexual intercourse himself? Hence, no man who condones his wife’s sexual immorality or acts as a procurer is found to abstain from unlawful sexual intercourse. A man who commits it has his own desire to satisfy, whereas a man who condones his wife’s conduct has no desire of his own satisfied by another man’s unlawful intercourse with her. If he lacks the faith to abhor another man’s unlawful intercourse with his wife, how could he have the faith to restrain himself from unlawful sexual intercourse?
Whoever regards it as permissible to let his wife commit unlawful sexual intercourse regards the gravest form of unlawful sexual intercourse as permissible. Whoever assists in this is like one who commits it, and whoever allows it to continue when able to stop it has approved of it. Whoever marries a woman who has not repented has accepted that she will commit unlawful sexual intercourse, since he cannot prevent her from doing so—for women’s scheming is indeed formidable.
For this reason, if a man’s wife commits manifest sexual immorality, he may put pressure on her so that she ransoms herself from him. This is expressly stated by Ahmad and others, because, through her unlawful sexual intercourse, she has sought release from the marriage and acted in a way that undermines it. He cannot remain with her until she repents. Yet her unlawful sexual intercourse does not, in itself, forfeit her dower, as indicated by the Prophet’s words—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—to the husband who had engaged in mutual imprecation. When the man asked, “What about my money?” he replied:
“You have no claim to any money from her. If your accusation against her is true, it was in return for the intercourse you lawfully enjoyed with her; and if you have falsely accused her