The status of the nikah when a husband hands his wife over to another man

Question

Question: A man placed his wife’s hand in the hand of his paternal cousin (the son of his father’s elder brother), saying: “I give her to you; neither can I afford her expenses nor can I satisfy her desire.” The woman also agreed, and the other man also accepted. A few days later a quarrel arose between the two men; the husband forced his wife into fornication with other men.

Answer

Placing one’s wife’s hand in the hand of another man is the utmost dishonour and shamelessness. According to the Shari‘a, this neither annulled the nikah nor made her the wife of the other man; rather, the first nikah remains in force. This woman must separate from that other man immediately.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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