Sexual Ethics in Islam (25 page)

“if you have touched women” 131

grant freedom to married couples to determine their own sexual positions.
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Even this analysis, however, leaves intact the pre- sumption that husbands instigate and control sexual activity.

That said, the most important content of all of these verses is not the content related to intercourse itself but the placement of sex firmly under divine oversight – in the sense that God will call each human being, and here particularly men, to account for their deeds, even with regard to sex. As with the discussion of divorced or widowed women, these passages are anything but a license for unbridled male actions; men’s access to women’s bodies is controlled by divine regulation. Unlike in those cases, however, Qur’anic discussions of sexual intimacy contain no appeal for female freedom to act.
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Conclusion

Though the Qur’an stresses individual accountability on numerous occasions without reference to gender, men seem to have greater scope for action and moral agency, particularly with regard to marriage and sex. That is not to say that women’s feelings and desires are not taken into consideration at all; dis- cussions of verses on marriage and divorce in this chapter have shown that a woman’s role in selection of a marriage partner and in regard to continuing her marriage may be necessary, if not decisive. Overall, however, the Qur’an directs men to exercise responsibility for numerous decisions in familial and intimate matters. Dominant interpretations that acknowledge this gender differentiation suggest that this arrangement reflects the natural order of things; men have both greater responsibilities and greater privileges in the divinely approved hierarchical forms of social and familial organization outlined in the Qur’an. Others, though, insist that such verses merely reflect the social norm of patriarchy, by addressing those with greater power in it. Although I am reasonably persuaded of this latter view with regard to marriage, divorce, and polygamy, I find it less convinc- ing with regard to intimate sexual relations between husband and wife. The Qur’anic privileging of male sexual agency

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suggests that in some crucial sense the Qur’an is a thoroughly androcentric – though not, I would argue, misogynist – text.

Modern scholarship on the Qur’an has rightly pointed out serious oversimplifications and distortions in the commen- tarial tradition, where commentators’ own assumptions about female inferiority and male supremacy have led to seriously flawed exegeses of particular verses. Yet, scholars intent on reform have at times committed the same error of allowing their own presuppositions to color their interpretations of the Qur’an to the extent that they fail to consider other possibly legitimate readings. It is not enough to simply posit that “the Qur’an is egalitarian and antipatriarchal,”
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and to blame interpretations that deviate from that perspective entirely on “misreadings.” Barlas, in an exercise of considerable intellectual honesty, acknowledges the role of the interpreter’s beliefs in
“Believing Women” in Islam
. She writes that:

I set out to absolve the Qur’an“itself ”of culpability for what Muslims have, or have not, read into it. This does not mean that I did not consider seriously the alternative argument that the problem is not one of reading but of the very nature of some of the Qur’an’s teachings. ... I wondered whether the Qur’an itself is responsible for its misreadings.
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Even in this attempt to query her work’s presumptions, Barlas does not acknowledge the possibility that a reading of the Qur’an that arrives at different conclusions could be a legitimate reading or a faithful explication of “the Qur’an’s teachings.” The way she frames the issue in fact presupposes what she sets out to prove: that any patriarchy or inequality seen in the Qur’anic text is the result of a“misreading.”

Barlas’s work operates under the assumption that the existence of mutuality and reciprocity in intimate relationships are incompatible with hierarchy; since the former clearly exist in the Qur’an, the latter cannot. However, as David Halperin has argued with regard to ancient Greece, inequality does not preclude real and enduring affection and may, in certain cir- cumstances, even be a condition for it; in some contexts,

“if you have touched women” 133

“personal affection and social subordination ... are two sides of the same coin.”
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It is one thing to accept this as a description of an ancient society, however, and another to view it as part of the divine plan for humanity. If the Qur’an – and, by extension, God

• treats the male as the primary recipient of guidance on matters of sex, if divine revelation endorses man-on-top (figuratively, of course, as the occasion-of-revelation literature seems to suggest that position-wise, it is not the placement of the man’s body but his decision about the position that matters), one must ask whether the egalitarian vision of gender justice that I and others would like to see diverges from God’s understanding of essential human nature.
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  Honesty requires me to concede the strength of some scriptural interpretations positing a privileged role for males in family and society. Still, just because these are possible – even the most straightforward – readings does not mean there cannot be equally compelling feminist interpretations of the text when historical context is considered and when critical principles of justice, kindness, and love are taken seriously. However, in order to create a body of persuasive and thorough feminist interpret- ation these principles will need to be defined and explored because justice, just to take one example, can mean a variety of things. One must debunk and counter aggressively patriarchal and indeed misogynist interpretations, but also justify the pro- ject of egalitarian interpretation. In the process, one must acknowledge that esteeming equality as the most important interpersonal value is a peculiarity of some modern Muslims and not something inherent in the text of the Qur’an. Feminist exegetes must take care not to be as blinded by the commitment to equality, and the presumption that equality is necessary for justice, as classical exegetes were by their assumptions about the naturalness of male superiority and dominance in family and society.
  

  In any case, the Qur’an is not primarily a rule book but rather a revelation that captivates and engages hearts and minds. It serves not only as a source of divine guidance but also as an indicator of the divine intelligence at work in the universe; it reminds human beings of God’s existence, generosity, wrath,
  

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  mercy, and justice. The fact that the Qur’an has a larger purpose
  

• and a more complicated relationship to human social and familial life than simply to provide regulations – does not excuse sloppy or apologetic readings of difficult passages. However, we do well to remember that there are limitations not only to the work of human interpretive intelligence, but to the Qur’anic text itself, at least as manifested in the earthly realm. It is, and can only ever be, a pale shadow of the ultimate Reality.
  

8

The Prophet Muhammad, his Beloved Aishah, and Modern Muslim Sensibilities

Aishah narrated that the Prophet married her when she was a girl of six and he consummated the marriage when she was a girl of nine.

– Sahih Bukhari
1

In 2002, Southern Baptist preacher Jerry Vines caused an uproar in the United States when he referred to the Prophet Muhammad as “a demon-possessed pedophile.”
2
The accusation of demon possession hearkened back to the “satanic verses” controversy sparked by Salman Rushdie’s 1988 novel, but Vines’ remarks did not reignite that firestorm. Instead, it was his accusation of pedophilia – based on Muhammad’s marriage to the young Aishah – that proved potent. Even in the post-9/11 climate of American hostility toward Islam, American Muslims found this attack on the Prophet particularly offensive. Outraged, many instinctively refused to accept the evidence provided by Vines and his associates for Aishah’s age at marriage, though they were on solid ground as to their sources.
3
According to
Sahih Bukhari
, viewed by Sunni Muslims as the most authentic compilation of hadith reports about the Prophet and his companions, Aishah was a girl of six when her father, Abu Bakr, married her off to his close friend Muhammad. Accounts in
Sahih Muslim
, the second most respected compilation, suggest an age at marriage of either six or seven.
4
The accounts agree, however, that she was “a girl of nine” when Muhammad consummated the marriage.

American Muslim leaders and organizations found themselves at a loss as to how to deal with the issue aside from frequent repetitions of the obvious counterclaim that Vines’

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remarks were inflammatory. Most response focused on the sinister motivations behind, and the divisive effects of, Vines’ comments, using terms such as “venomous,” “bigoted,” and “hate-filled.” Sidestepping the substance of the allegations, Shakur Bolden, an Islamic Center president from Florida, declared: “It’s outrageous that he made those comments. He should not have made those comments. Those comments do not bring people together and that’s what we ought to be about

– bridging communities.”
5
A few spokespeople for Muslim organizations cautiously suggested that Vines’ statements were inaccurate. But in one of the few attempts to refute directly the allegation about Aishah’s age, Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the prominent Council on American-Islamic Relations, resorted to clumsily (and erroneously) suggesting that “six” and “nine” have been interpreted by many Muslim scholars to mean “sixteen” and“nineteen.”
6

There is nothing new, of course, about the Prophet’s marriages being the target of non-Muslim criticism. Accus- ations of lust and sensuality were regular features of medieval attacks on the Prophet’s character and, by extension, the authen- ticity of Islam as a religion.
7
This “rather abrasive criticism”
8
focused, more often than not, on the large number of Muham- mad’s wives or his marriage to Zaynab, the former wife of his adopted son Zayd. Aishah’s age was rarely the subject of contro- versy in premodern discussions. In recent years, however, it has figured prominently in criticisms leveled against Islam not only by Christian polemicists but also a number of feminist, human rights, and secularist organizations. Though the controversy over Aishah’s age at marriage died down fairly quickly in the national media, years later it still rages online, where it has appeared as a staple in evangelical polemics against Islam well before Rev. Vines’ remarks.
9
Partially due to this added scrutiny, Muhammad’s marriage to Aishah has become a topic of discus- sion and debate among Muslims as well.

This chapter considers contemporary Muslim treat- ments of Aishah’s age at marriage and what they reveal about certain types of Muslim anxieties, focusing on online sources. Muslim discussions of the Prophet’s personal conduct in

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general, and his marriage to Aishah in particular, provide a lens through which to view changed attitudes toward sex and marriage, and unresolved concerns about the appropriateness of applying medieval standards in modern life.
10
There are dangers in both historical anachronism and unchecked moral relativism, and in analyzing Muslim reflections on Muhammad’s marriage to Aishah, several questions emerge about both the accuracy and relevance of historical informa- tion. The most obvious, of course, are: how old was Aishah when her marriage to the Prophet took place? and how old was she when it was consummated? I make no attempt in this chapter to assess the historical record, nor do I take a position as to Aishah’s actual age at the time of consummation of her marriage. I do not think the Bukhari account of Aishah’s marital history is implausible, given later legal discussions of menarche and majority, nor do I view it as infallible simply because Bukhari includes it. The cavalier treatment of this hadith by those who find its content objectionable, however, has implications that many Muslims not directly engaged in ongoing polemical struggles have not recognized. Rejecting the view that Aishah was six and nine, respectively, at marriage and consummation implies a willingness to question the reliability of Bukhari’s compilation which, under other circumstances, can subject one to attack.

How to treat hadith texts is perhaps the most crucial methodological issue for contemporary Muslim reformist thinkers. Just as with the Prophet’s ownership of Mariyya, or his actions in permitting Muslim soldiers sexual access to females captured in battle, if one accepts the hadith account of his mar- riage to Aishah, one confronts the actions of the Prophet in doing something that is unseemly, if not unthinkable, for Mus- lims in the West. Suggesting that he was wrong to do so raises profound theological quandaries. Yet accepting the rightness of his act raises the question: on what basis can one reject the mar- riage of young girls today? At stake are broader issues regarding the relevance of prophetic example to Islamic sexual ethics and the relevance of historical circumstance to the application of precedent.

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Apologetics and Polemics

Contemporary Muslim discussions of the Prophet’s marriages in general, and his marriage to Aishah in particular, are attentive to the broader climate of non-Muslim scrutiny and criticism of Islam. As in controversies over female circumcision, Muslim discourses on the Prophet’s personal life have the dual objective of defending Islam by responding to allegations of impropriety while also engaging in intra-Muslim reflection and debate. There is a voluminous Muslim-oriented literature, in pamphlets and books, treating the Prophet’s wives, and making reference to the Prophet’s exemplary behavior as a husband.
11
Not surpris- ingly, there are also numerous discussions of these topics on a variety of Internet sites, expressing diverse perspectives, and addressed to different audiences. Muhammad’s marriage to Aishah is a prominent theme in treatments of the Prophet’s married life. Some articles explicitly respond to criticism of the marriage; these range from refutation to apologetic to counter-polemic, and seem to be mostly directed toward non- Muslims. Other pieces – articles, fatwas, question/answer format discussions, and postings in chat rooms and on discus- sion boards – are geared toward intra-Muslim dialogue. Even in Muslim-focused forums, though, the various approaches adopted by Muslim authors reflect their sense that they are engaged in an ongoing ideological struggle with “Christianity” and “the West.” This oppositional stance emerges clearly in directly polemical articles but is present at least as an undercur- rent in almost all discussions.