Keeping a non-Muslim woman like a wife

Question

A young, sane, adult Muslim has not kept his lawfully wedded wife with him for eight or nine years, and keeps with him a young non-Muslim (kafir) woman. When asked about this woman he says that she is a servant, but from outward dealings it appears that she is his wife. Moreover, he is in government service, and wherever he stays he keeps this woman with him as well; and at that time none of his kin lives there, but rather this man and this woman live together, and this woman does his eating and drinking — in…

Answer

(a) Employing an unrelated woman as a servant is valid in the Shari‘a, but seclusion (khalwa) with an unrelated woman is haram. (b) Calling anyone a fornicator without a Shar‘i proof is haram, however extensive his relations may be; but it is also binding on him not to keep such relations as give people occasion for suspicion: keeping such relations is also prohibited in the…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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