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Is it permissible for a woman to search the civil registry to find out if her husband is married to another, and is that considered espionage?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Espionage is forbidden in Islamic law for a husband and others, except to prevent an evil when suspicion arises, based on the Almighty's saying: "And do not spy," and the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) saying: "Do not spy, and do not eavesdrop." Espionage is searching for something whose knowledge would burden its owner. Accordingly, it is not permissible for a woman to search civil records or other sources to find out if her husband is married to another, because the husband is usually pained by his wife's knowledge of this matter.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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