Azhar University refers professor to investigation

CAIRO - 17 September 2017: Al-Azhar University referred Sabri Abdel Raouf, a professor at Al-Azhar University, to investigation after he released a fatwa (legal judgment) ruling that a husband can have intercourse with his dead wife.


Abdel Raouf said that it is "halal because she is his wife,” noting that it is not considered adultery or “haram”, and who commits such an act will not be punished. He added however that “it is neither socially liked nor familiar,” and is referred to as “farewell intercourse.”


This fatwa caused a lot of controversy in religious and political circles.


On his part, Mohy el-din Afifi, secretary of the Islamic Research Academy, said that the fatwa issued by Abdel Raouf “reflects the bankruptcy of their owners.”


The secretary-general of the Islamic Research Academy stressed in a statement to Egypt Today that this fatwa is not accepted “neither by law, nor by humanity.”


The topic first arose in May 2011, when Moroccan cleric Zamzami Abdul Bari said that marriage remains valid even after death which raised the topic of a husband having sex with his dead wife.