Love is often used to describe a close attachment to another person. Sex means sexual intercourse between two people. Most religions have views on love and sex. Islam considers sex as an act of worship.
Islamic views
Islam has very strict views on love and sex. These are based on passages from the Qur’an and Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad).
Muslims view sexual intercourse as an act of worship that fulfils emotional and physical needs as well as being procreative. Having children is the way in which humans can contribute towards Allah’s creation.
Sexual intercourse is a gift from Allah and therefore can only take place within a married relationship. Islam encourages people to marry and not to lead celibate lives. Marriage places a responsibility on both the husband and the wife to meet each other’s sexual needs.
Homosexual relationships
Homosexual and lesbian relationships are forbidden by Islam because these strict rules about sexual intercourse only taking place between a husband and wife. Some Muslim lawyers have argued that it is a crime which should be punished by death.
Adultery
Men are not allowed to be alone with women other than their wives in case they are tempted by them
“Let no man be in privacy with a woman who he is not married to, or Satan will be the third.”
Hadith
Islam recognises that men and women can both be tempted to have sexual relationships outside of a marriage, but any such relationship is forbidden and adultery by a husband or wife is a serious crime:
“Nor come nigh to adultery: for it is a shameful (deed) and an evil, opening the road (to other evils).”
Surah 17:3
The punishment for adultery is found in the Qur’an:
“The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication – flog each of them with a hundred stripes: let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment.”
Surah 24:2
Information taken from: BBC GCSE Bitesize
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What about rape?
Under Islamic law, rape can only be proven if the rapist confesses or if there are four male witnesses. Women who allege rape without the benefit of the act having been witnessed by four men who subsequently develop a conscience are actually confessing to having sex. If they or the accused happens to be married, then it is considered to be adultery.
Rape of Muslim women is against Islamic law – although the rape of non-Muslim women is not, if they are ‘captured in battle’ or bought as slaves. Even the rape of a Muslim woman is almost impossible to prove under strict Islamic law (Sharia). If the man claims that the act was consensual sex, there is very little that the woman can do to refute this. Islam places the burden of avoiding sexual encounters of any sort on the woman.
Since it is incredibly unlikely that a child molester will violate his victim in front of “four trustworthy men”, Islamic law amounts to a free pass for sexual predators.
Islamic law rejects forensic evidence (such as DNA) in favor of testimony. An interesting situation thus sometimes develops in cases where a victim alleges rape and the man denies that sex even took place. In the absence of four male witnesses, rape cannot be proven. The woman’s testimony then becomes a “confession” of adultery. She can be stoned, even though the male is unpunished, since he never “confessed” to a sexual act!
Also, there can be no such thing as rape in marriage, even if the husband has to hit the wife in order to bring about her submission.
Keep in mind that most Muslim countries do not operate under strict Islamic law, but rather under legal codes imported from the West. Therefore rape victims in these countries can and often do receive justice under more reasonable standards of proof.
Information taken from: The Religion Of Peace.
Let’s meet Gulnaz, she prompted an international outcry in 2010 when she found herself jailed for adultery after being raped. But in the three years since then, her life has taken an even more shocking turn.
Watch the following video and answer these questions:
1) Why was Gulnaz sent to jail?
2) What does the US lawyer compare women to?
3) What happens if a woman says she’s been raped?
4) What are Gulnaz’s options?
5) Why does Gulnaz receive a presidential pardon?
6) Why is she marrying this man?
7) Why has the man been imprisoned?
8) Why does Gulnaz need to forgive him?
The Kite Runner CH.7
Please answer these questions:
1. What was Hassan’s dream about?
2. Why does Amir refer to the last moment of the competition as “All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption“?
3. Why doesn’t Hassan hand in the blue kite?
4. Who two people say these words: “He’s jut a Hazara, isn’t he?” What is the intended meaning?
5. How does Amir feel by the end of the chapter? Why?
English B Higher Level 