Assalaamu alaikum Ineed,
Mmm... the short answer is that raping
isn't justified. And frankly, from what I understand, the source for this permission seems to be
internet rumours about
general media reporting that
apparently there are
some Muslim men in Sweden who say this! This is hardly Islamic scholarship!!!
For those who might be interested, I'm posting a sahih hadith from Al-Bukhari. There is also a comment by Az-Zuhri, an early Islamic scholar who got a lot of his information directly from the Sahaba. There are, of course, many other ahadith that could be discussed and analysed, as well, of course, as the Qur'an. And frankly, to
really look at these questions questions of sexuality and slavery is the work of a serious scholar. I've personally looked into these questions a fair bit, and this could
easily be at
least a Master's thesis. Anything less would be too shallow.
Ardianto also has an excellent point: people can take bits of the Qur'an and ahadith and can try to justify just about anything. (musingly) I think this is why the Classical Islamic scholars described the Qur'an as the
mirror of the soul. As it says right at the beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah: The Qur'an is a Guide
for those who are conscious of God.
To put it another way: there are (in my opinion) fundamentally two ways to read the Qur'an: 1) You look to the Qur'an with an open and questing heart trying to understand God's Will to apply to
your life or 2) You look to the Qur'an in order to
use it for some reason. To justify an action you want to take, for instance. Or to try to force someone else into accepting your will by using bits of the Qur'an. But
you are
not looking for
Guidance.
Therefore, if your intentions are pure, the Qur'an will mirror your purity, and you will be Guided. But if your intentions are not pure, then you will not find Guidance. You will only see the reflection of the ugliness in your heart.
(smile) In reality, I think we tend to look at the Qur'an somewhere on a spectrum. That is, sometimes we have pure intentions, and are Guided, and sometimes we don't, and we
won't be Guided. The amount of Guidance depends on the amount of sincerity, it seems to me.
May Allah, the One To Whom Belong All the Beautiful Names, Help us to access the bounty of His Guidance.
Chapter: If a woman is compelled to commit illegal sexual intercourse against her will
(6)
باب إِذَا اسْتُكْرِهَتِ الْمَرْأَةُ عَلَى الزِّنَا، فَلاَ حَدَّ عَلَيْهَا
فِي قَوْلِهِ تَعَالَى: {وَمَنْ يُكْرِهْهُنَّ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ مِنْ بَعْدِ إِكْرَاهِهِنَّ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ}.
And Safiyya bint 'Ubaid said:
"A governmental male-slave tried to seduce a slave-girl from the Khumus of the war booty till he deflowered her by force against her will; therefore 'Umar flogged him according to the law, and exiled him, but he did not flog the female slave because the male-slave had committed illegal sexual intercourse by force, against her will." Az-Zuhri said regarding a virgin slave-girl raped by a free man: The judge has to fine the adulterer as much money as is equal to the price of the female slave and the adulterer has to be flogged (according to the Islamic Law); but if the slave woman is a matron, then, according to the verdict of the Imam, the adulterer is not fined but he has to receive the legal punishment (according to the Islamic Law).
وَقَالَ اللَّيْثُ حَدَّثَنِي نَافِعٌ، أَنَّ صَفِيَّةَ ابْنَةَ أَبِي عُبَيْدٍ، أَخْبَرَتْهُ أَنَّ عَبْدًا مِنْ رَقِيقِ الإِمَارَةِ وَقَعَ عَلَى وَلِيدَةٍ مِنَ الْخُمُسِ، فَاسْتَكْرَهَهَا حَتَّى افْتَضَّهَا، فَجَلَدَهُ عُمَرُ الْحَدَّ وَنَفَاهُ، وَلَمْ يَجْلِدِ الْوَلِيدَةَ مِنْ أَجْلِ أَنَّهُ اسْتَكْرَهَهَا. قَالَ الزُّهْرِيُّ فِي الأَمَةِ الْبِكْرِ، يَفْتَرِعُهَا الْحُرُّ، يُقِيمُ ذَلِكَ الْحَكَمُ مِنَ الأَمَةِ الْعَذْرَاءِ بِقَدْرِ قِيمَتِهَا، وَيُجْلَدُ، وَلَيْسَ فِي الأَمَةِ الثَّيِّبِ فِي قَضَاءِ الأَئِمَّةِ غُرْمٌ، وَلَكِنْ عَلَيْهِ الْحَدُّ.
| Reference |
: Sahih al-Bukhari 6949 |
| In-book reference |
: Book 89, Hadith 10 |
| USC-MSA web (English) reference |
: Vol. 1, Book 85, Hadith 81 |
| (deprecated numbering scheme) |