Asalamualikum wa rehmatullahi wa barakatu, My question is regarding my friend @ age 14 her brother who was 26 yrs old started acting wierd with her. He started to touch her in wrong places forcefully and kept on bothering her. she out of fear didnt tell anybody. He kept on telling her it was ok in Islam even though he was married with one baby. Now he is 31 and she is 18 he kept it up for 4 yrs though she didnt live with him in between she got used to it thinking it was ok or mabey out of love. They didnt have sexual intercourse but they did rub their bodies together and kissed. The girl was baligh @ the beggining of all of this. the girl is married now and they dont do anything anymore she has asked Allah for forgiveness and swears that she felt guilty the whole time. IS this counted as Zina what r islamic rulings and views on this. Though this kind of love is out of question. what r the punishments. Is the guys wife haram on him? Is it both of theirs fault?please advise with knowledge of deen so that i may advise my friend with wisdom. Jazakhallahukhair salam

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.

If that brother really did that with his sister, then this is a great sin and a great evil, because how could a Muslim do such a thing with his sister while he is the one who should protect her honor and not the one who would violate it?

There is no doubt that they are both sinful but the one amongst them who did not know that this was a sin would be excused. However, both of them should be careful not to do such things in the future.

Moreover, if this sister finds something suspicious of her brother, then she should treat him as a non-Mahram man, in which case, she should not allow him to be in seclusion with her.

In any case, those acts (that this brother did with his sister) are not considered Zina (fornication or adultery) that necessitates Hadd (i.e. the corporal punishment determined by the Islamic Law); but the Sharee’ah called it Zina in order to show its seriousness and drive people away from it, and clarify that it is a means that leads to real Zina.

However, the wife of the brother does not become forbidden for him because of what he did with his sister, but the fact remains that both the brother and the sister are partners in crime because she did that with him with her consent.

For more benefit on the means that lead to Zina, please refer to Fataawa 84419 and 81786, and for more benefit on the crime of incest, please refer to Fataawa 89280 and 82317.

Allaah Knows best.