Committing Adultery is considered a sin in all religions. The Bible
decrees the death sentence for both the adulterer and the adulteress (Lev.
20:10) . Islam also equally punishes both the adulterer and the adulteress (Qur’an
24:2). However, the Quranic definition of adultery is very different from the Biblical
definition. Adultery, according to the Quran, is the involvement of a married
man or a married woman in an extramarital affair. The Bible only considers the
extramarital affair of a married woman as adultery (Leviticus 20:10,
Deuteronomy 22:22, Proverbs 6:20-7:27).
"If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife,
both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil
from Israel" (Deut. 22:22).
"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife both
the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death" (Lev. 20:10).
According to the Biblical definition, if a married man
sleeps with an unmarried woman, this is not considered a crime at all. The
married man who has extramarital affairs with unmarried women is not an
adulterer and the unmarried women involved with him are not adulteresses. The
crime of adultery is committed only when a man, whether married or single,
sleeps with a married woman. In this case the man is considered adulterer, even
if he is not married, and the woman is considered adulteress. In short, adultery
is any illicit sexual intercourse involving a married woman. The extramarital
affair of a married man is not per se a crime in the Bible. Why is the dual
moral standard? According to Encyclopedia Judaica, the wife was considered to
be the husband's possession and adultery constituted a violation of the
husband's exclusive right to her; the wife as the husband's possession had no
such right to him. That is, if a man had sexual intercourse with a married
woman, he would be violating the property of another man and, thus, he should
be punished.
To the present day in Israel, if a married man indulges in
an extramarital affair with an unmarried woman, his children by that woman
are considered legitimate. But, if a married woman has an affair with another man,
whether married or not married, her children by that man are not only illegitimate
but they are considered bastards and are forbidden to marry any other Jews
except converts and other bastards. This ban is handed down to the children's
descendants for 10 generations until the taint of adultery is presumably
weakened.
The Quran, on the other hand, never considers any woman to
be the possession of any man. The Quran eloquently describes the relationship between
the spouses by saying:
" And among His signs is that He created for you mates
from among yourselves, that you may dwell in tranquillity with them and He has
put love and mercy between your hearts: verily in that are signs for those who reflect" (Qur’an 30:21).
This is the Quranic conception of marriage: love, mercy, and
tranquillity, not possession and double standards.
