Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Rape of Slaves, Prisoners, and Wives: Difference between revisions

Rape, or az-[[zina]] bil jabr (الزنا بالجبر), is a crime under Islamic law, and the perpetrator is subject to the [[w:hudud|hudud]], that is, capital punishments such as lashing and execution. The Islamic understanding of rape, though, differs markedly from the understanding of rape present in modern codes of law. "Maa malakat aymaanakum"ما ملكت أيمانكم" or "what your right hand possess", that is, [[Slavery in Islamic Law|slaves]], do not have the right to refuse the sexual advances of their owners, and likewise for women taken as booty by victorious Muslim warriors. Wives, similarly, are obliged to accept the sexual advances of their husbands except in certain circumstances such as menstruation or fasting and the Hanafi school of jurisprudence expressly permitted a husband to otherwise force himself on his wife (see [[Rape in Islamic Law]]). As such, the rape of slaves and wives is not considered unlawful in [[Islamic law]]. Almost to emphasise the point, the rape of the slaves of other men is treated as property damage, not as zina bil jabr deserving a [[w:hadd|hadd]] punishment.