The Five Things the Sharīʿah Preserves

This is one of the five things — a matter not gone into yet, and very interesting. There are five things that the sharīʿah is believed to preserve. The first is religion. The second is life. The third is lineage. The fourth is wealth. And the fifth is name, honour. Muslims believe that these are the five things, and every rule in Islam can be related to one of these five.

So the reason prayer is prescribed is the preservation of religion. The reason for the prohibition of fornication is the preservation of lineage: it is a right of a child to know who their father and mother are. That is a right. So fornication is prohibited.

In that type of situation, the best thing is that you are supposed to veil people. If a woman accuses the husband of adultery, that does not relate to her lineage. She can ask for a divorce — perfectly permissible. She can go to a qāḍī and say: I have grounds for divorce. She can call herself what is called mutaḍarrirah, one who is being harmed, and say: I want out of this marriage. She is not supposed to say why.

The reason it is different for the man is because of the lineage. If from the adultery there is a child as a result, then it would be attributed to a man whose child it is not. And that is preservation of lineage. So the sharīʿah allows that the man may say: no, that is definitely not my child. And he has to do it right away. He cannot wait six months later and say: oh, that is not my child. No — he has to do it right from the start, or else it does not stand up in court.

If he was the adulterer, then she has grounds for a divorce, but she does not accuse him. Why not? Because it is related to lineage. Accusing somebody of adultery is one of the worst things you can do in Islam. It really is. The only reason there is a situation where the man can do it is related to lineage, because there is inheritance — a child inherits from the man — and also the child takes the man's name. If it is not his child, then he does not want that child to have his lineage nor his name, if he knows that the child is not from his seed. And that is the only time.

And if she denies it, she is not condemned for adultery. But the child does not go to the lineage. She is not punished for adultery if she denies it: her denial stands up in court. It is Qurʾānic teaching. So the idea is simply lineage; one is not making a moral judgement of her. The woman is not taken to account for something if she denies it. But the marriage ends: she is separated from the man, and the child does not go to the man.