Fornicatresses
Here "fornicatresses" (al-zaniyah) denotes women who earn money
through prostitution. It is reported that Marthad ibn Abu Marthad
asked the Prophet's permission to marry a prostitute named 'Anaq
with whom he had relations during the pre-Islamic period. The
Prophet (peace be on him) did not give him an answer until Allah
revealed, "The fornicator shall not marry anyone except a
fornicatress or an idolatress, and the fornicatress shall not marry
anyone but a fornicator or an idolater, and that (marrying them) is
haram for the Believers." (24:3)
The Prophet (peace be on him) then recited this verse to Marthad and
said, "Do not marry her." (This story is reported by Abu Daoud, al-Nisai,
and al-Tirmidhi.)
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala has permitted Muslims to marry chaste
believing women or chaste women of the People of the Book.
Similarly, He has made marriage lawful to men on the condition that
they seek it "in honest wedlock, not in lust." (4:24). Accordingly,
if someone does not accept this command from the Book of Allah, nor
considers it binding, he is a mushrik (As we saw in Chapter One in
the discussion concerning Allah's sole right to legislate the halal
and haram for His servants, anyone who disobeys or disregards this
explicit command of Allah Ta'ala is considered a mushrik or an
associator), and no one will agree to marry him except another
mushrik. If someone accepts this command as binding, but despite
this he marries a fornicatress to whom marriage has been prohibited,
he becomes a fornicator himself.
This ayah just cited comes after the ayah prescribing the punishment
of flogging for fornicators (This punishment has been prescribed for
the unmarried fornicator and his partner, while the punishment of
death by stoning, if the crime is proved either by four male adult
eye witnesses to the act or by self confession, has been prescribed
for the married adulterer and his partner. (Trans.)): "Flog the
woman and the man guilty of fornication each with a hundred
stripes....(24:2)
While this is a corporal punishment, the punishment mentioned in
24:3 is a civil punishment, for depriving fornicators of the right
to marry chaste women is like depriving someone of citizenship,
nationality, or some other civil right as a punishment for a crime.
Ibn al-Qayyim, after explaining the meaning of the previously-cited
verse goes on to say: "This explicit injunction of the Qur'an is
what human nature and reason demand. Allah Ta'ala prohibits His
slave (the Muslim man) to become a pimp to his wayward wife, as He
made man's nature with an instinctive abhorrence and contempt for
acting as a pimp. This is why, when people want to abuse someone in
the most disparaging manner, they call him 'the husband of a whore;'
and Allah does not permit the Muslim to be like that. Further light
is thrown on this prohibition by considering the crime of the woman
against her husband and society. She defiles the bed of her husband
and perverts the lineage which Allah desires to preserve for the
integrity and smooth functioning of society, which He counts as one
of His favors upon mankind. Adultery leads to the confounding and
doubting of parentage. It is thus one of the beauties of the Islamic
Shari'ah that it prohibits marriage to a prostitute until she
repents and demonstrates that she is not pregnant (that is, until
she has a menstrual period in order to ascertain that she is not
carrying a child)." (lghathat al-Lahfan, vol. 1, pp. 66-67.)
Moreover, a prostitute is a vile and degraded woman. Allah has
ordained that marriage be a source of affection and mercy between
the spouses. How then could a vile woman be the object of love of a
virtuous man, since the partners in a marriage must be akin in their
ideas, attitudes, and characters if true love and understanding are
to develop between them? As vileness and virtue are antithetical to
each other both by nature and by considerations of morality, there
cannot even be a sympathy, much less love and affection, between the
two. Indeed, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala has spoken truly in His
saying, Vile women are for vile men, and vile men are for vile
women; virtuous women are for virtuous men and virtuous men are for
virtuous women. (24:26)
|
