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{{QualityScore|Lead=3|Structure=3|Content=2|Language=2|References=3}}'''This article is currently undergoing an overhaul, please do not edit it.'''
{{QualityScore|Lead=3|Structure=3|Content=3|Language=3|References=3}}'''This article is currently undergoing an overhaul, please do not edit it.'''


Islamic scriptures generally employ the masculine pronoun in Arabic, which is used to refer to both men and women. On occasion, the scriptures diverge from this standard, inclusive usage, and comment specifically on men or women. The perspective taken by Islamic scriptures on women is of special interest in recent times due to frequent collision with modern values.
Islamic scriptures generally employ the masculine pronoun in Arabic, which is used to refer to both men and women. On occasion, the scriptures diverge from this standard, inclusive usage, and comment specifically on men or women. The perspective taken by Islamic scriptures on women is of special interest in recent times due to frequent collision with modern values.
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{{Quote||Waqidi has informed us that Abu Bakr has narrated that the messenger of Allah (PBUH) had sexual intercourse with Mariyyah in the house of Hafsah. When the messenger came out of the house, Hafsa was sitting at the gate (behind the locked door). She told the prophet, O Messenger of Allah, do you do this in my house and during my turn? The messenger said, control yourself and let me go because I make her haram to me. Hafsa said, I do not accept, unless you swear for me. That Hazrat (his holiness) said, by Allah I will not contact her again. Qasim ibn Muhammad has said that this promise of the Prophet that had forbidden Mariyyah to himself is invalid – it does not become a violation (hormat).<ref>Tabaqat v. 8 p. 223 Publisher Entesharat-e Farhang va Andisheh Tehran 1382 solar h ( 2003) Translator Dr. Mohammad Mahdavi Damghani</ref>}}
{{Quote||Waqidi has informed us that Abu Bakr has narrated that the messenger of Allah (PBUH) had sexual intercourse with Mariyyah in the house of Hafsah. When the messenger came out of the house, Hafsa was sitting at the gate (behind the locked door). She told the prophet, O Messenger of Allah, do you do this in my house and during my turn? The messenger said, control yourself and let me go because I make her haram to me. Hafsa said, I do not accept, unless you swear for me. That Hazrat (his holiness) said, by Allah I will not contact her again. Qasim ibn Muhammad has said that this promise of the Prophet that had forbidden Mariyyah to himself is invalid – it does not become a violation (hormat).<ref>Tabaqat v. 8 p. 223 Publisher Entesharat-e Farhang va Andisheh Tehran 1382 solar h ( 2003) Translator Dr. Mohammad Mahdavi Damghani</ref>}}


===Muhammad's exemption from Quranic sexual norms===
===Muhammad's exemptions from sexual laws===
{{Main|Muhammad's Just In Time Revelations}}
{{Main|Convenient Revelations}}Muhammad often received revelations from God which would absolve him from or resolve for him various personal restrictions and controversies. These revelations would form part of the Quran and hadith. Critics have suggested that such verses would scarcely merit inclusion in a eternal document of divine importance that conceives of itself as "guidance for all of mankind". According o Sahih Bukhari, Aisha, Muhammad's wife, once said to him after one such revelation, "I feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires."<ref>{{Bukhari|6|60|311|}}</ref>
{{Quote|{{Bukhari|6|60|311}}|Narrated Aisha:
 
I used to look down upon those ladies who had given themselves to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and I used to say, "Can a lady give herself (to a man)?" But when Allah revealed: "You (O Muhammad) can postpone (the turn of) whom you will of them (your wives), and you may receive any of them whom you will; and there is no blame on you if you invite one whose turn you have set aside (temporarily).' (33.51) I said (to the Prophet), "I feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires."}}


===Women and the Farewell Sermon===
===Women and the Farewell Sermon===
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:''Main Article: [[The Farewell Sermon]] See also: [[Analysis of Muhammads Farewell Sermon|Analysis of Muhammad’s Farewell Sermon]]''
:''Main Article: [[The Farewell Sermon]] See also: [[Analysis of Muhammads Farewell Sermon|Analysis of Muhammad’s Farewell Sermon]]''


''The Farewell Sermon'' (خطبة الوداع‎, Khuṭbatu l-Wadā') is Muhammad's last sermon before his death in 632 CE. There is a popular redacted and edited version of the sermon, but in the original versions found in {{Abudawud||1900|Hasan}}, al-Tabari's History, and ibn Ishaq's Sirat, Muhammad's order to beat women coincides with the Qur'anic order of wife-beating in 4:34. In al-Tabari's version, he also compares women to domestic animals, and in ibn Ishaq's version quoted below, they are compared to prisoners:
''The Farewell Sermon'' (خطبة الوداع‎, Khuṭbatu l-Wadā') is Muhammad's last sermon before his death in 632 CE. The modern redacted and edited version of the sermon differs significantly from the original versions found in {{Abudawud||1900|Hasan}}, al-Tabari's History, and ibn Ishaq's ''Sirat'', Muhammad's order in the sermon to beat one's confirms the Qur'anic order of wife-beating in {{Quran|4|34}}. In al-Tabari's version, Muhammad also compares women to domestic animals, and in ibn Ishaq's version, quoted below, women are compared to prisoners.


{{Quote||"You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. You have the right that they should not defile your bed and that they should not behave with open unseemliness. '''If they do, God allows you to put them in separate rooms and beat them''' but not with severity. If they refrain from these things they have the right to their food and clothing with kindness. Lay injunctions on women kindly, '''for they are prisoners with you having no control of their persons.''' You have taken them as a trust from God, and you have the enjoyment of their persons by the words of God, so understand…"<ref>Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah, p. 651</ref>}}
{{Quote||"You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. You have the right that they should not defile your bed and that they should not behave with open unseemliness. '''If they do, God allows you to put them in separate rooms and beat them''' but not with severity. If they refrain from these things they have the right to their food and clothing with kindness. Lay injunctions on women kindly, '''for they are prisoners with you having no control of their persons.''' You have taken them as a trust from God, and you have the enjoyment of their persons by the words of God, so understand…"<ref>Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah, p. 651</ref>}}
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While honor violence is not explicitly endorsed in Islamic law, it often appears where Islamic law is implemented. Certain Islamic punishments such as stoning, flogging, and even death by being thrown off a tall building are prescribed for sexual crimes. While these punishment are not justified as 'recovering honor' as such, it is not difficult to see how a culture can make that connection and then implement the violence prescribed through other, extralegal means.
While honor violence is not explicitly endorsed in Islamic law, it often appears where Islamic law is implemented. Certain Islamic punishments such as stoning, flogging, and even death by being thrown off a tall building are prescribed for sexual crimes. While these punishment are not justified as 'recovering honor' as such, it is not difficult to see how a culture can make that connection and then implement the violence prescribed through other, extralegal means.
===Honor killings by family members===
Domestic violence is an issue that transcends cultures and is not limited solely to the Islamic world. Yet while honor killing indeed occurs in other cultures, and is not prescribed in by Islamic schools of jurisprudence, the ubiquity of killing of children by parents is popularly excused through reference to Islam. Shari'a law allows a father or mother to murder their children without retaliation (Qisas):{{Quote|'Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller), section o1.1-2|Retaliation is obligatory .... against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right ... The following are not subject to retaliation ... (4) a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring.}}Thus according to the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, a father or mother may murder their offspring for any reason, without fear of vengeance or justice. Most often, this sort of murder is done to preserve family "honor" and this honor usually revolves around something that a female family member has done. Such extreme negative attitudes and actions in response to female freedom are no doubt influenced by Islamic punishments for [[zina]] and the highly controlling nature of Islam towards women generally.


While Islamic law does not order honor violence, it does exempt it from prosecution in large part, as parents who murder their children are not punishable with the ''Qisas'' (retaliation) under the Sharia. The standard manual of law for the Shafi'i school sets out this exemption in plain terms. Enactors of honor violence and killing can seek protection under this exemption, even if they are not encouraged by the Sharia to enact violence in the first place.{{Quote|'Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller), section o1.1-2|Retaliation is obligatory [...] against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right [...] The following are not subject to retaliation [...] (4) a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring.}}
The United Nations Population Fund estimated in September 2000 that as many as 5,000 women and girls fall victim to such killings each year.
The United Nations Population Fund estimated in September 2000 that as many as 5,000 women and girls fall victim to such killings each year.
===Strict enforcement of hijab===
===Strict enforcement of hijab===
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