Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith and Jurisprudence
Kecia Ali
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 1780743815
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Drawing on both revealed and interpretative Muslim texts, Ali critiques medieval and contemporary commentators alike to produce a balanced and comprehensive study of a subject both sensitive and urgent, making this an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and interested readers.
intimate act humans can undertake and a profoundly social activity. All societies and cultures regulate sexual activity among their members. Certain pairings are permissible, while others are not; some acts are approved, while others are disallowed. Muslims are not alone in making distinctions between what is lawful and unlawful, what is proper and improper. Nor have Muslim societies historically been unique (or uniform) in imposing consequences, including physical chastisement, on those who
woman? Would DNA evidence count in place of the usually required witnesses to the sexual act? Answers to these questions must reflect the entire range of consequences to tinkering with some portion of the system. If DNA were considered proof, then one could argue that in cases where a woman is prosecuted for zina on the basis of pregnancy, any man she names should be tested as well, and prosecuted if DNA results show his paternity. If evidence of the result, rather than the act, is all that is
identity was taking place among Muslims.17 Yet contemporary insistence on the forbiddenness of homosexuality aside, a number of scholars have suggested “that one might consider Islamic societies ... to provide a vivid illustration of a ‘homosexual-friendly’ environment in world history.”18 According to Scott Kugle, “when one looks through the historical and literary records of Islamic civilization, one finds a rich archive of same-sex desires and expressions, written by or reported about
hands. For Allah doth blot out sins and forgive again and again. Qur’an, Surah 4, verse 431 Two brief sentences in a verse discussing observance of the dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast succinctly capture much of what is essential about marriage and sex in the Qur’an: “Lawful for you on the nights of the fasts is the approach to your wives. They are garments for you and you are garments for them.”2 First, and most obviously, sex between spouses is not opposed to spiritual practice – in this case,
relevant for premodern Muslim scholars, who warned against “making lawful what is forbidden and forbidding what is lawful,” but they generally engaged in a less categorical and more nuanced analysis of moral and immoral behavior. What does it mean to say that something is lawful or forbidden according to Islam (or Islamic law or shari‘a) today? The relationship between enforceable duties and ethical obligations has become increasingly blurred in a world where Islamic legal institutions no longer