Ma malakat aymanukum and sex

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (March 2007)

Part of a series on the
Islamic Jurisprudence
– a discipline of Islamic studies
Fields

This box: view • talk • edit

In Islamic Divine law (Arabic: Sharia), Ma malakat aymanukum is the term for slaves, which may be captives of war. A male master may legally marry then have sexual intercourse with his female slave, making a Ma malakat aymanukum and spouses the only category of people a man may have sexual intercourse with.

[edit] Qur'an

al-Muminun 6 and al-Maarij 30 both, in identical wording, draw a distinction between spouses and "those whom one's right hands possess", saying " أَزْوَاجِهِمْ أَوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُهُمْ" (literally, "their spouses or what their right hands possess"), while clarifying that sexual intercourse with either is permissible. Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi explains that "two categories of women have been excluded from the general command of guarding the private parts: (a) wives, (b) women who are legally in one's possession". [1]

The verse can be broken into three parts:

The Qur'an, chapter 4 (An-Nisa), verse 24:
“
  1. And (also forbidden are) all married women except those whom your right hands possess (this is) Allah's ordinance to you,
  2. and lawful for you are (all women) besides those, provided that you seek (them) with your property, taking (them) in marriage not committing fornication.
  3. Then as to those whom you profit by, give them their dowries as appointed; and there is no blame on you about what you mutually agree after what is appointed; surely Allah is Knowing, Wise.

— translated by M. H. Shakir

Transliteration: Waalmuhsanatu mina alnnisa-i illa ma malakat aymanukum kitaba Allahi AAalaykum waohilla lakum ma waraa thalikum an tabtaghoo bi-amwalikum muhsineena ghayra musafiheena fama istamtaAAtum bihi minhunna faatoohunna ojoorahunna fareedatan wala junaha AAalaykum feema taradaytum bihi min baAAdi alfareedati inna Allaha kana AAaleeman hakeeman

Arabic: وَالْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ النِّسَاء إِلاَّمَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُكُمْ كِتَابَ اللّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَأُحِلَّ لَكُم مَّا وَرَاء ذَلِكُمْ أَن تَبْتَغُواْ بِأَمْوَالِكُم مُّحْصِنِينَ غَيْرَ مُسَافِحِينَ فَمَا اسْتَمْتَعْتُم بِهِ مِنْهُنَّ فَآتُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ فَرِيضَةً وَلاَ جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِيمَا تَرَاضَيْتُم بِهِ مِن بَعْدِ الْفَرِيضَةِ إِنَّ اللّهَ كَانَ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمً

 ”

Verse 24:33 also states, "But force not your maids to prostitution when they desire chastity, in order that ye may make a gain in the goods of this life. But if anyone compels them, yet, after such compulsion, is Allah, Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful (to them)".

[edit] Rules

Regarding rules for having sexual intercourse with Ma malakat aymanukum, a man may not co-habit with a female slave belonging to his wife.[2] Neither may he have relations with a female slave if she is co-owned. He may have sex with a female captive who was already married prior to captivity.[3]

If the female slave has a child by her master, she then receives the title of "Umm Walad" (lit. Mother of a child), which is an improvement in her status as she can no longer be sold and is legally freed upon the death of her master. The child, by default, is born free due to the father (i.e., the master) being a free man. Although there is no limit on the number of concubines a master may possess, the general marital laws are to be observed, such as not having sexual relations with the sister of a female slave.[2][4]

People are told that if they do not have the means to marry free-women, they can marry, with the permission of their masters, slave-women who are Muslims and are also kept chaste. In such marriages, they must pay their dowers so that this could bring them gradually equal in status to free-women.[5][6]

Fornication (sexual intercourse between a man and a woman who are not married to each other) is regarded as an offence. Muhammad gave exemplary punishment to owners of brothels that were operated using their slave-women for such pleasures.[7] Muhammad also told people that they are all slaves/servants of Allah and so instead of using the words عَبْد (slave-man) and اَمَة (slave-woman), the words used should be فَتَى (boy/man) and فَتَاة (girl/woman) so that the psyche about them should change and a change is brought about in these age-old concepts.[8][6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Surah - Al - Muminoon
  2. ^ a b "Abd". Encyclopaedia of Islam Online. Ed. P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Academic Publishers. ISSN 1573-3912. 
  3. ^ USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts
  4. ^ Lovejoy, Paul E. (2000). Transformations in Slavery. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-78430-1. , p.2
  5. ^ Qur'an 4:25
  6. ^ a b Javed Ahmad Ghamidi. Mizan, The Social Law of Islam, Al-Mawrid
  7. ^ Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Mizan, The Penal Law of Islam, Al-Mawrid
  8. ^ Sahih Muslim, 2249