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Why does the response differ when dealing with an adulterous husband versus an adulterous wife, where the husband's action is justified and part of the blame is cast upon the wife, while the wife's action is deemed more repulsive and uglier than the man's adultery?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Adultery is an abominable obscenity for both men and women, and they share in its worldly and otherworldly punishment. However, a woman's adultery is more heinous than a man's due to additional corruptions it entails, such as defiling her husband's bed, introducing a foreign lineage to him, disgracing her family, betraying her husband, and diminishing his sanctity. These corruptions do not occur, or are lesser, with a man's adultery. As for a husband committing adultery, the sin is his alone and his wife does not bear it, even if she has fallen short in his rights. The mention of women's temptation does not justify the husband's action or implicate the wife in his sin; rather, the aim is to address the problem and seek its causes, while emphasizing that adultery is a grave sin for which its perpetrator deserves punishment.

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

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