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Is it permissible for a man to remain with his wife who has not borne him children and has reached menopause, knowing that he has had children with another woman and cannot combine two wives?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is permissible for a husband to keep his wife who does not bear children with him, as this does not fall under the forbidden celibacy (tabattul). However, it is desirable for him to marry a fertile, loving woman to join her with his first wife and treat them both justly, due to the hadith: "Marry the fertile, loving woman, for I will boast of your multitude." If it is not possible to combine them, then the advice is to divorce the first wife and marry a fertile one.

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

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