then it is even further beyond your reach.” This is because, if she commits unlawful sexual intercourse, she may repent. Her conduct does, however, permit him to put pressure on her until she either ransoms herself from him, if she chooses separation, or repents.

Generally, a man has unlawful sexual intercourse with someone other than his wife only because he is attracted to that person. He then continues having unlawful intercourse with whoever attracts him, leaving his wife suspended between marriage and separation: neither unmarried nor truly enjoying married life. This drives her towards unlawful sexual intercourse, motivated by a desire to retaliate against her husband, outwit him and provoke his anger. For if he does not remain faithful to her in her absence, she will not remain faithful to him in his. She has a right to sexual relations with him, just as he has a right to sexual relations with her. If he transgresses by going beyond what Allah has permitted him, he has not kept himself chaste.

Moreover, the sexual desire of a man who commits unlawful intercourse becomes preoccupied with the prostitutes he chooses. His desire for lawful intercourse is therefore diminished, and his protective jealousy is insufficient to safeguard his wife’s chastity. While married to him, she thus becomes like an adulteress who has taken a secret lover. These are important considerations that should not be disregarded.

Accordingly, a woman who engages in sexual acts with other women is guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse, as stated in the hadith:

“The unlawful sexual intercourse of women is their sexual activity with one another.”

A man who commits the act of the people of Lot with a male slave or anyone else is guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse, and a woman who marries him is likewise guilty of it. Thus, none marries him but a woman guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse or a polytheist. For this reason, many wives of men who engage in such acts have unlawful intercourse with men other than their husbands. A wife may even have intercourse with the man with whom her husband commits that act, to spite her husband and satisfy her own desire.

Likewise, a woman married to an effeminate man who is penetrated as she herself is penetrated is married to a man guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse. Indeed, he is the worse of the two, for in addition to committing unlawful intercourse, he has become effeminate and is subject to a curse specifically for his effeminacy, distinct from the curse that befalls him for committing the act of the people of Lot.