Islamic law aims to preserve the six indispensable necessities (i.e.,
religion, life, mind, progeny, wealth, and character) that a human being’s
bliss or a good life upon earth cannot be achieved except with their
preservation.
Islam has legislated laws that aim to preserve each of these six
necessities. What concerns us here for our discussion regarding the wisdom of Islam
behind its specific legislations pertaining to women are the effects of these
specific legislations upon preserving these six necessities and in particular
the purity of one’s progeny and the correctness of his lineage to one’s parents
thereby preserving the circle of relatives and the circle of the wombs. It is
this lineage that distinguishes human beings on earth from all other animals.
The preservation of the purity of one’s progeny and the correctness
of lineage to one’s parents is among those six indispensable necessities regarding
which there is no bliss for humanity nor will humanity continue to exist
without its preservation. In order to preserve one’s lineage to his parents:
1- Islam forbade that a man under any circumstance marry his mother,
daughter, sister, aunt (paternal or maternal), niece (from his brother or
sister), wife’s mother, his wife’s daughter (if he had sexual relations with
her mother.) Allah (God) says in the holly Qur’an :
“Forbidden to you are your mothers and daughters, your sisters,
your aunts, paternal and maternal, your brother’s daughters, your sister’s
daughters, your mothers who have given suck to you, your suckling sisters, your
wives’ mothers, your stepdaughters who are in your care being born of your
wives you have been in to—but if you have not yet been in to them it is no
fault in you—and the spouses of your sons who are of your loins, and that you should take to you two sisters
together, unless it be a thing of the past; Allah is All-forgiving,
All-compassionate; and wedded women, save what your own right hands own. So
Allah prescribes to you. Lawful for you, beyond all that, is that you may seek,
using your wealth, in wedlock and not in licence.” (Qur’an 4:23-24)
And the equivalents to these
women to whom he is related by breast feeding, as Islam’s messenger (PBUH) has
said:
“What is unlawful by reason of lineage is forbidden by reason of
fosterage.”
The aim in forbidding marriage with these women is to preserve one’s lineage
and the circle of wombs; and to allow men to become accustomed to a circle of
women around him toward whom he feels no sexual desire, physical pleasure or
possessiveness but rather toward whom he has feelings of love, mercy and
respect. Hence the feeling a man has toward these women must be different than
the feelings he has toward a woman whom he can marry and have sex.
Accordingly, Islam forbade a woman under any circumstance to marry her
father, son, brother, uncle (paternal or maternal), nephew (from her brother or
sister), her husband’s father or son, and likewise the equivalents to these men
to whom she is bound by breast feeding. This is so that a woman may feel toward
these men feelings of closeness and love that are free of any sexual desire.
2- In order to preserve the lineage and make the circle of the womb pure
and clean, Islam ordered that marriage be announced, certified, and witnessed
so that it may be distinguished from illicit sexual relations. To preserve the
honor of women, Islam required of her guardian to pursue the marriage contract
for his charge (i.e., daughter, sister, etc.). Hence she does not negotiate
with a man for herself like a woman engaging in adultery or fornication. In
order to preserve a woman’s dignity and guard her modesty and softness, her closest
male relative settles the marriage contract for her.
3- Since illicit sexual intercourse is the plague that destroys the
pure progeny and correct lineage, pure and good Islam (which is the law of Allah
almighty Who is All-Wise, Worthy of all praise) has by all means firmly closed
and barred all doors leading to this plague. Islam cured this problem, before
its occurrence; and has cured it after its occurrence (when it occurs) rooted
it out and terminated all its effects on society. This is because the sexual
instinct and natural inclination of men and women toward one another is among
the strongest instincts if not the strongest. Both men and women are weak
before this instinct and this desire.
Without doubt that to fall into this plague and its spread means the
destruction of the greatest ingredient for human bliss upon earth and that is
purity of progeny and correct lineage. This will lead to destruction of the
womb and the end of mercy. For with the spread of illicit sex there is a spread
of illegitimate children. When there are many illegitimate children: the family
comes to an end; the fabric of society is ripped apart; bonds of love are ended
between society’s members; selfishness and narcissism becomes wide spread; and
hatred and dislike is spread between people. The only feelings that remain are
those of possessiveness, power, pleasure, pure self-interest, living for the
moment and distancing of oneself from shouldering the responsibilities of
marriage and raising children. This is a warning of the impending destruction,
collapse, and loss of mercy, happiness and compassion.
4- In order to keep the progeny clean, the pure and good Islamic law ordered
men and women to lower one’s glance from one another and commanded that women
cover and hide their beauty from all men who are permitted to marry her. Allah
almighty says :
“Say to the believers, that they cast down their eyes and guard
their private parts; that is purer for them. Allah is aware of the things they
work. And say to the believing women, that they cast down their eyes and guard
their private parts, and reveal not their adornment save such as is outward;
and let them cast their headcoverings over the bosoms, and not reveal their adornment
save to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband’s fathers, or their
sons, or their husband’s sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or
their sisters’ sons, or their women, or what their right hands own, or such men
as attend to them, not having sexual desire, or children who have not yet
attained knowledge of women’s private parts; nor let them stamp their feet, so that
their hidden ornament may be known. And turn all together in repentance to
Allah, O you believers; haply so you will prosper.” (Qur’an 24:30-31)
5- This Islamic law forbade a woman to travel alone without a
guardian. (A guardian or « mahram » is defined as whoever she is
forbidden to marry under any circumstance. It forbade that anyone enter her
household while her husband or guardians are not present or for men (with the
exception of her husband or guardian) to remain in private with them. The
intent behind all these regulations is to preserve honor, to keep away from the
areas of temptation and doubt, and to preserve trust and peace of mind
regarding chastity and uprightness.
6- Without doubt, that the Islamic regulations regarding chastity (such
as the women’s dress code and others) were never a barrier for women to reach
the highest degree of perfection possible for her in terms in all its branches
of knowledge, virtue and righteousness. Indeed the women’s dress code is among
the greatest means that free men and women to reach their aims, as they are not
preoccupied with the other sex all the time. Practice shows that those students
who are in single sex universities are more apt to learn than those in
coeducational institutions.
These regulations that Islam has legislated to preserve character and
to guard the purity of offspring and correctness of lineage are opposed by those
who follow their desires and are short sighted, those who want to live for
their desires and their self interests even if this results in every evil and
sin. The attack of these perverts on Islamic laws that govern chastity and the
preservation of lineage was not as they claim out of their desire to protect
women, her rights or to show justice to her. Rather their aim was to take women
while still in their youth out of their homes so that she can be within their
reach whenever and wherever they want, to deceive married women not to preserve
the rights of her husband or guard her lineage, and to make a woman in every
stage of her life a plaything and an object of pleasure for men that he may
fulfill his sexual desire in every way and at the same time leave her to deal
with what is in her womb, while he is free to have many as girl friends and
passing lovers.
In the end, women are left after pregnancy to shoulder all the
responsibilities. Either she will commit the crime of murdering her child prior
to giving birth or after; or either she will give up her child to a foster home
where it will raised far away from any family as animals are raised in
shelters; or either she will throw her baby away in the trash. If there remains
anything of her maternal instincts, she will try to find some means to take care
of this child. She might look for another man to replace the first who after
fulfilling his desires left her.
This painful reality is what has resulted in the sinful, amoral
societies wherein men claim that they want to preserve women’s rights and give her
equality with men. This reality is the greatest proof that their claim that
they seek equality is only a lie and a means of deception.
Women were the sacrificial ram for this call to “equality.” For her
to seek a livelihood has become a necessity of life and it is against her
nature and constitution.
A man is able to have sex with a thousand women and will never carry anything
in his belly, and still will be able to have sex with a thousand more. While a
woman might become pregnant during her first sexual experience with any passing
man who seeks only gratification. She alone is held responsible for all the
rest. She will either kill what lies in her belly or she will be responsible
for all the maintenance and what follows. Where then is the equality?
In these societies, the un-Islamic ignorant contracts of marriage are
no longer a guarantee for women. For if a man can find a woman whom he can
enjoy without these guarantees and responsibilities, why should he turn to
marriage with its restrictions and consequences? Moreover, since in these
societies women have been made equal to men in the right to terminate marriage,
these contracts do not remain but for the briefest period of time, sometimes
not lasting more than a few hours. Again, where is the equality?
