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What Diseases Annul a Marriage Contract?

30 June, 2020
Q If one of the spouses suffers from disease such cancer, AIDS, or viral hepatitis, can the marriage contract be annulled?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. 

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.


In this fatwa:

Medical experts can determine which diseases are transmitted by sexual intercourse and are thus [a cause] for annulling the marriage, and which ones are not and therefore do not annul a marriage.


Answering your question, Dar Al-Ifta Al-Misriyyah, states:

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The diseases and defects that permit the annulment of a marriage contract have been determined by scholars in the past ages. Three of these defects are common to both men and women: insanity, vitiligo, and leprosy; while two are particular to each [sex].

The defects particular to men are impotency and a severed penis; and the defects specific to women are vaginal constriction because of flesh or of bone.

Modern scholars have used these as a base case for similar defects and diseases which have appeared in modern times and which numerous physicians have determined to be transmitted by sexual intercourse.

These include AIDS – but not cancer or some types of viral hepatitis; (e.g. hepatitis C is non-communicable except if its carrier has a wound through which the disease can be transmitted to his partner).

To sum up, medical experts can determine which diseases are transmitted by sexual intercourse and are thus [a cause] for annulling the marriage, and which ones are not and therefore do not annul a marriage.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Source: Egypt’s Dar Al-Ifta