Is it permissible for a married couple to live as friends without engaging in a physical marital relationship (even once), and what is the wife's status in this situation?

It is forbidden religiously for a man and a woman who are strangers to each other to live in the same house. Among the greatest objectives of marriage are the preservation of chastity, the purification of the soul, and the procreation of offspring. These objectives cannot be achieved without sexual intercourse. The Prophet, peace be upon him, encouraged marrying a fertile and loving woman. It is permissible to imagine a marriage without sexual intercourse in cases of necessity, such as the illness of one or both spouses, or their old age, or if the wife agrees to marry an impotent man, a castrated man, or an elderly man, and vice-versa.

Jurists have differentiated between stipulating the negation of the permissibility of intercourse, where both the condition and the contract are void according to the majority of scholars, and stipulating the non-performance of intercourse, where the contract is valid and the condition is nullified according to the Hanafis and Hanbalis. The Malikis consider both the condition and the contract to be invalid. The Shafi'is deem the marriage invalid if the condition comes from the wife, and valid if it comes from the husband.

Both the man and the woman should not accept such a marriage, as it contradicts the sound human nature upon which Allah created man. Allah made marriage a source of tranquility, affection, and mercy, and marriage is among the traditions of the messengers.