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Rape in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions
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===Muhammad Did not Consider Intercourse Between a Master and his Slave to be Zina (Adultery)=== | ===Muhammad Did not Consider Intercourse Between a Master and his Slave to be Zina (Adultery)=== | ||
As noted in a later section below, punishments for rape applied only to free women | As noted in a later section below, punishments for rape applied only to a man who rapes a free women or a slave he does not own. Similarly, zina (fornication or adultery) only applied to intercourse with women in those two groups, but not to intercourse with a man's own slave women according to Muhammad in this hadith graded Hasan by al-Albani: | ||
{{Quote|{{Abudawud|12|2258}}| 'Amr b. Shu'aib on his father's authority said that his grandfather reported: | {{Quote|{{Abudawud|12|2258}}| 'Amr b. Shu'aib on his father's authority said that his grandfather reported: | ||
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The honey story sounds rather less plausible as an explanation for these verses than the slave sex version. Perhaps it is no coincidence that "honey" was a euphemism for sexual intercourse. See for example the following hadith: | The honey story sounds rather less plausible as an explanation for these verses than the slave sex version. Perhaps it is no coincidence that "honey" was a euphemism for sexual intercourse. See for example the following hadith: | ||
{{Quote|{{Abudawud|12|2302|}}|Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: | {{Quote|{{Abudawud|12|2302|}}|Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: | ||
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was asked about a man who divorced his wife three times, and she married another who entered upon her, but divorced her before having intercourse with her, whether she was lawful for the former husband. She said: The Prophet (ﷺ) replied: She is not lawful for the first (husband) until she tastes the honey of the other husband and he tastes her honey. }} | The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was asked about a man who divorced his wife three times, and she married another who entered upon her, but divorced her before having intercourse with her, whether she was lawful for the former husband. She said: The Prophet (ﷺ) replied: She is not lawful for the first (husband) until she tastes the honey of the other husband and he tastes her honey. }} | ||
==Punishments for Rape== | ==Punishments for Rape== | ||
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{{Quote|{{Abudawud||2152|hasan}}|Abu Sa’id Al Khudri traced to Prophet (ﷺ) the following statement regarding the captives taken at Atwas. There must be no intercourse with pregnant woman till she gives birth to her child or with the one who is not pregnant till she has had one menstrual period.}} | {{Quote|{{Abudawud||2152|hasan}}|Abu Sa’id Al Khudri traced to Prophet (ﷺ) the following statement regarding the captives taken at Atwas. There must be no intercourse with pregnant woman till she gives birth to her child or with the one who is not pregnant till she has had one menstrual period.}} | ||
===Intercourse with Polytheist | ===Intercourse with Polytheist Slaves Forbidden by Scholars (Coercing Them to Islam Permitted)=== | ||
While Muhammad's men seem to have had intercourse with captive polytheist women whom they had captured during the expedition to Awtas/Autas (see hadiths quoted above), most scholars ruled that this was later forbidden by {{Quran|2|221}} (which forbids marriage to polytheist women, but scholars inferred that this also applied to intercourse with slaves). Intercourse with Muslim, Christian or Jewish slaves was not affected by this restriction.<ref>[http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=272452 Ruling on sexual intercourse with one's polytheistic slave-woman - IslamWeb.net Fawah 272452]</ref> | |||
Early scholars of fiqh devised a workaround for this restriction, including to allow the rape of minors who were polytheist: | |||
{{Quote|Yohanan Friedmann, "Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)"<ref>Friedmann, Y. "Tolerance and Coercion in Islam: Interfaith Relations in the Muslim Tradition (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)" Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 107-108</ref>|According to a report included in the ''Jāmi‘'' of al-Khallāl (d. 311 A.H. / 923 A.D.), Ibn Hanbal maintained that | |||
:if Zoroastrian and idolatrous women are taken prisoner, they are coerced into Islam; if they embrace it, sexual relations with them are permissible and they can (also) be used as maidservants. If they do not embrace Islam, they are used as maidservants but not for sexual relations (''wa idhā subhīna (sic) al-majūsiyyāt wa ‘abadat al awthān ujbirna 'alā al-Islām fa-in asl ama wutiʼna ma 'stukhdimna wa in lam yuslimna 'stukhdimna wa lam yūtaʼna''). | |||
The contradiction inherent in this passage is evident: despite the unspecified coercive measures, some of the women in question refused conversion and, consequently, the masters could not take full advantage of their services. If the only way to embrace Islam is pronouncing the declaration of faith, the conversion of a defiant woman may not be possible: it is not always feasible to force someone to utter the shahāda. According to a tradition transmitted on the authority of Hasan al-Basri, the Muslims used various devices to attain their objective: they turned the Zorastrian slave-girl toward the Ka‘ba, ordered her to pronounce the shahāda and to perform ablution. Her master then engaged in sexual relations after she had one menstruating period while in his house. Others hold that the master must teach the slave-girl to pray, to purify herself and to shave her private parts before any intercourse. The participation of the girl in this procedure is minimal, and this wording may be interpreted us a considerable lowering of the conversion requirements so that the girl becomes eligible for sexual intercourse as expeditiously as possible. Among the early traditionists, only a few were willing to go beyond this and allow sexual relations with a Zoroastrian slave-girl without insisting on at least a semblance of conversion. | |||
Shafi‘i's treatment of the issue is slightly different. Speaking of grown-up Zoroastrian or polytheist women taken into captivity, he maintains that no sexual relations with them are allowed before they embrace Islam without bringing up the question of converting them forcibly. If the female captives are minor but were taken captive with at least one of their parents, the ruling is the same. If, however, the girl was captured without her parents, or one of her parents embraced Islam, she is considered a Muslim and is coerced into embracing it (''nahkumu lahā bihukm al-Islām wa nujbiruhā ‘alayhi''). Once this happens, sexual relations with her are lawful.}} | |||
==Muhammad's Slave Women and Qur'an 33:50== | ==Muhammad's Slave Women and Qur'an 33:50== | ||