If a man sees his wife committing zina, what is obligatory for him?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it obligatory for a man who sees his wife committing zina to perform li'an, or does he have the right to simply divorce her without li'an? Divorce is his right.
Answer:
He has the right to divorce her, but he may need li'an for the sake of the child, so that the child is not attributed to him; he wants the child not to be attributed to him, so he needs li'an in this case. However, he needs li'an even if he divorces her, because the hadd will be carried out against him unless he brings four witnesses or performs li'an; even if he divorces her, the problem is not resolved. The benefit of li'an is that the hadd is dropped, and it also serves to deny the child.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it obligatory for a man who sees his wife committing zina to perform li'an, or does he have the right to simply divorce her without li'an? Divorce is his right.
Answer:
He has the right to divorce her, but he may need li'an for the sake of the child, so that the child is not attributed to him; he wants the child not to be attributed to him, so he needs li'an in this case. However, he needs li'an even if he divorces her, because the hadd will be carried out against him unless he brings four witnesses or performs li'an; even if he divorces her, the problem is not resolved. The benefit of li'an is that the hadd is dropped, and it also serves to deny the child.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [1353 -2802] من رأى زوجته تزني، ما الواجب عليه؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.