Note 133

133. It is forbidden you to wed your fathers' wives. # 107

Marriage with one's stepmother is here explicitly prohibited. This prohibition also applies to marrying one's stepfather. Where &Baha'u'llah has expressed a law between a man and a woman it applies mutatis mutandis as between a woman and a man unless the context should make this impossible. &Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi confirmed that, while stepmothers are the only category of relatives mentioned in the text, this does not mean that all other unions within a family are permissible. &Baha'u'llah states that it devolves upon the House of Justice to legislate "concerning the legitimacy or otherwise of marrying one's relatives" (Q and A 50). &Abdu'l-Baha has written that the more distant the blood-relationship between the couple the +P223 better, since such marriages provide the basis for the physical well-being of humanity and are conducive to fellowship among mankind.