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Dayatha (cuckoldry: failing to guard one's family, in fiqh)

الدياثة (في الفقه)

In the lexicon dayatha is a lack of jealousy over one's household and kin; the dayyuth is the man without such jealousy, and jurists add the qurtuban and the qarnan. 1 Dayatha is a grave sin: a report counts the dayyuth among those who will not enter Paradise, and when it is widespread it is counted as corruption in the land. 1 2 It bears on the rules of divorce; one who insults another by calling him dayyuth is discretionarily punished and not hadd-punished; and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis count it among the things that remove a witness's probity. 2

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
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Law and courts

Summary

In the lexicon dayatha is a lack of jealousy over one's household and kin. The dayyuth is the man without such jealousy; jurists add the qurtuban and the qarnan as equivalents. 1 Dayatha is a grave sin, and a report counts the dayyuth among those who will not enter Paradise. When it is widespread it may be counted as corruption in the land. 1 2

Related terms

Qiyada is the procuring of illicit relations between a man and a woman; it is the act of the procurer, as dayatha is the act of the dayyuth, and the two are close in meaning. 1

Rules that depend on it

The jurists hold that dayatha is among the things that bring about or accompany divorce, with a difference over whether it makes divorce obligatory or recommended. 2 One who insults another by calling him dayyuth is discretionarily punished and not hadd-punished, because he has harmed him by attaching a stain to him, and analogy has no place in the hadd penalties. 2 The Shafi'is and Hanbalis count dayatha among the things that remove a witness's probity. 2

People and things also explored

Ahliyya (legal capacity: to have rights and duties, and to act; its stages from the womb to full maturity, and what impairs it)· Democracy and the Sharia — compatibility and conflict· Fatwa on the satellite channels — its benefit and harm· Secularism and Islam — conflict or concord· Stoning (rajm) as a penalty for zina· Allusion to a proposal during the waiting period· Aman (safe-conduct granted to enemies in war)· Amana (trust, deposit and what is entrusted)

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8304
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.8305
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Dayatha (cuckoldry: failing to guard one's family, in fiqh)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/dayatha-fiqh/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Ahliyya (legal capacity: to have rights and duties, and to act; its stages from the womb to full maturity, and what impairs it)

Ahliyya is lexically suitability, and it is of two kinds: capacity to have rights and duties, the capacity of liability; and capacity to act, that is to perform acts recognised by the law. Its bearer passes through the stages of the foetus, childhood, discernment, puberty and maturity. Liability is complete from birth and incomplete for the foetus; the capacity to act is partial at discernment and full with puberty and reason. It is affected by heavenly impediments such as madness, imbecility, sleep, fainting, illness, slavery, menstruation, childbirth and death, and by acquired ones such as ignorance, drunkenness, jest, folly, travel, error and coercion.