Is the wife considered a participant in sin if she conceals the pregnancy of a divorced woman from adultery, and then this woman marries and the child is attributed to someone other than his father?
There is no sin upon the wife for concealing the Muslim woman's secret, and what is obligatory upon her is to avoid discussing the matter of this girl. The lineage of the child is attributed to the first husband, or the second, or to neither of them. The details of this are that if the wife marries after the completion of her iddah (waiting period), the child is not attributed to the first husband. If four years have passed since she separated from the first husband, the child is not attributed to him. If she gives birth to the child in less than six months from her second marriage, the child is not attributed to him. In these cases, the child's lineage is denied from both. If the child is born more than six months after the second marriage, he is his child. If the child is born more than six months after the second marriage but less than four years after the first, then the matter is presented to a qāfah (experts in tracing lineage) to attribute the child to one of them. This detailed explanation does not concern the wife; she must avoid discussing it and maintain the woman's concealment.
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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