The Qur'an and Women in Captivity

The Qur’an offers no rights to women taken in captivity. In fact, the Qur’an condones raping and enslaving married women taken in captivity. Thus, an early Medina verse proclaims:

IV: 24 “Also (prohibited are)
Women already married,
Except those
Whom your right hands possess..”

Apologists such as Abdulah Yusuf Ali argue that formal hostility dissolves civil ties, such as marriage contracts. Married women held in captivity following ' holy Jihad' are, thus, used for the sexual gratification of the Mujahiddins. The captured women could consequently be sold for ransom.

The Jews of Medina condemned the exercise of Azl (Coitus Interruptus) , condoned by the prophet, as the lesser child-murder: a condemnation that was dismissed by Muhammad as a Jewish lie.*

In light of Islam’s condemnation of adultery, how can one accept that such a practice against captured women is none other than adultery?

sources:

* Rodinson, Maxime. Muhammad.

The Qur'an and Man's destiny

One of the early verses of the Qur’an (Al-Balad or The City) paints a very poor picture of man’s sorry destiny of “ toil and struggle,” with no certainty of success.
.
XC: 4 “ Verily We have created
Man into toil and struggle.”

XC: 5 “ Thinketh he, that none
Hath power over him? ”

Even when success is forthcoming, man should refrain from boasting of worldly prosperity and must guard against squandering it in vanity:

XC: 6 “ He may say (boastfully);
Wealth have I squandered
In abundance! ”

The Qur’an reminds man that wealth and abundance come with responsibility:

XC: 7 " Thinketh he that none
Beholdeth him? "

What God bestows on man, He can freely take away. The only certainty in life is surely its uncertainty.

The Qur'an and Legislation

One verse of Al-Maida (Table spread) is at the centre of the debate on the imposition of Shari’a Laws ( Islamic legislation) raging the Islamic world.

The kernel of Al-Maida was revealed while Muhammad’s estrangement with other monotheists was in progress. * An accusation is made against the Jews that they failed to follow the legislation in their scriptures and twisted the meaning of their books to agree with their own purposes.**

V:47 “ It was We who revealed
The law (to Moses): therein
Was guidance and light.
By its standard have been judged
The Jews, by the Prophets
Who bowed (as in Islam)
To God’s Will, by the Rabbis
And the Doctors of Law:
For to them was entrusted
The protection of God’s Book,
And they were witnesses thereto:
Therefore fear not men,
But fear Me, and sell not
My Signs for a miserable price,
If any do fail to judge
By (the light of) what God
Hath revealed, they are
(no better than) Unbelievers. ”

The above verse, which was revealed when the Jews turned to the Prophet to judge a case of adultery, is used by those advocating the sovereignty of God as the sole legislator in any given Islamic state. ***

An argument is, however, made against the viability of applying Islamic legislation to procedural matters. With the exception of inheritance laws and debt registration procedures, the Qur’an does not address procedural matters in criminal and civil matters, according to Egyptian national Chief Justice Said Al-Ashmawy. ****

Those advocating an Islamic state, based on the Prophet’s city-state prototype in Medina, are oblivious to the fact that such a state is one that would fail to address any of the complexities of 21st century modern life.

* Richard Bell, The Qur’an translated.
** The Holy Qur’an translated by Abdulla Yusuf Ali.
*** M. Said Al-Ashmawy. Al-Khilafa Al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Caliphate)
**** M. Said Al-Ashmawy. Al-Shari’a Al-Islamiyya wal Qanun Al-Masri.

The Qur'an and Usury

The Qur’an is uncompromising in its prohibition of usury which was practiced by the Jews in Medina. * Those involved in usury transactions are demonised as touched by evil and driven to madness:

ll.275. “ Those who devour usury
Will not stand except
As stands one whom
The Evil One by his touch
Hath driven to madness.
That is because they say:
‘Trade is like usury,’
But God hath permitted trade
And forbidden usury...”

Variations exist in the interpretation of usury and whether it relates to monetary transactions. There is, however, a strong argument for the prohibition of deferred payment even in selling **

Usury, which applied to deferred payment for food by the needy, would often lead to slavery in the early days of Islam. The underlying cause for the prohibition of usury is , thus, to forbid the enslavement of the needy.

However, as with many teachings of the Qur’an, the spirit of the law was abandoned to allow for the ills of slavery which remains legitimate in Islamic jurisprudence, to date.

Sources:

* Montgomery Watt and Richard Bell. Introductions to the Qur’an.
** see M. Said Al-Ashmawy. Al-Ribaa wal Faida fil Islam