Is it permissible to divorce one's wife if a person is found hidden in the bedroom, after saying: "You are forbidden to me like my mother and my sister"?
The betrayal of a wife is a tremendous trial. A chaste and honorable man does not accept living with an unchaste woman, whether her adultery is explicit or not. This is out of fear for his honor and lineage, and to ward off the sin of being a cuckold (dayyuth). It has been mentioned in the Hadith that a dayyuth will not enter Paradise; this refers to someone who has no protective jealousy (ghirah).
Ibn Taymiyyah said that it is not permissible to marry an adulteress except after she repents. If a woman commits adultery, it is not permissible to keep her as a wife; otherwise, the man would be a dayyuth.
A husband's statement to his wife, "You are forbidden to me like my mother and sister," is not a divorce unless he intends it as such; otherwise, it is ẓihār (a pre-Islamic form of divorce).
If the husband decides to separate from her, it must be through explicit divorce. It is his right to pressure her to relinquish her mahr (dowry) if she has committed a clear indecency, such as adultery, or if she is disobedient and defiant (nashūz), or if she abandons an obligatory duty. All of this permits him to make her life difficult until she absolves him of all or part of her right and he separates from her. If she does not offer to do so and is unconcerned, it is not permissible for him to keep her, but rather he must separate from her.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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