Wife of a friend has committed adulery several times .Now she is going to Hajj without seeking forgiveness from my friend as my friend has said that he will not forgive till she does a open Tauba in front of close realtives of both sides . Will the Hajj be accepted without seeking forgiveness from the husband ? Will a sin like several adultery be forgiven by one Hajj ?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Allaah forgives out of His Favor and Mercy for a person who has an accepted Hajj all his/her previous sins – whether major sins or minor sins – as confirmed by authentic Sharee'ah texts. In Fatwa 81549, we clarified the difference of opinion among the scholars as to whether Hajj wipes out the major sins and the minor sins altogether, or only the minor sins; we also clarified the preponderant opinion on this issue.

Besides, performing Hajj once wipes out all previous sins even if these sins were repeated several times. In addition to this, if this woman sincerely repents, then repentance wipes out her previous sins. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 87903 and 86527.

Also, it is not a condition for the repentance of this woman from Zina (fornication or adultery), to ask her husband to forgive her, firstly, she is Islamically required to conceal her sin. The Prophet said: “Whoever happens to commit any of these filthy things, should conceal himself/herself with the screen of Allaah." [Al-Haakim and Al-Bayhaqi - As-Suyooti graded it Saheeh (sound) and Al-Iraaqi graded it Hasan (good)]

Secondly, the scholars stated that in case of such kind of moral rights, it is enough to repent, regret, seek forgiveness and supplicate for the person against whom these sins were committed; As-Saffaareeni said: “The right of a human being is either a right that can be given back by the same kind of thing like money and the value of damaged things or a right that cannot be so. The first kind should be given back to its owners (like money). As regards the second kind of rights that cannot be given back by the same kind of thing, and can be given back by other ways – like the rights related to committing Zina, backbiting, slandering and accusing someone of Zina – then the repentance from this kind of sins is by regretting, not committing the sin again, seeking forgiveness as often as possible for the person whom one backbited, but one does not need to inform him or to seek his forgiveness about all these sins…”

Therefore, if this woman performs Hajj fulfilling the conditions of a valid Hajj, and her Hajj was not invalidated by any matter that invalidates it, then her Hajj is valid.

On the other hand, the husband has no right to oblige his wife to proclaim her repentance in front of the members of the two families or in front of other people; rather, she is required to repent between her and her Lord, as she should conceal her sin as we previously discussed.

To conclude, if this woman repents, and she becomes a righteous woman of good moral conduct, then her husband should continue his life with her as if nothing had happened, and he should be keen on disciplining her according to Islam and ‘Eemaan (faith), and he should oblige her to protect herself by wearing Hijab and avoiding mixing with non-Mahram men or being in seclusion with them.

Allaah Knows best.