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- by Dr. Mohammad Haitham Al-Khayat

Prohibition of sexual Relations
Outside Marriage

The religions revealed from on high provide a second ring of protection for individuals and society against the adverse effects of unrestrained sexual freedom.  This can be seen in their prohibition of all kinds of extra-marital relationships.

4.1 Islam, and indeed all divine religions, outlaw adultery and block all the roads leading to it.   Adultery inflicts considerable damage upon family genealogy, honour and future generations and causes numerous family break-ups as well as the disintegration of the ties that bind family groups together.   It brings about an oppressive spread of licentiousness leading to a toal moral breakdown.   All this explains Islam's strong condemnation of adultery, which is only matched by its condemnation of drinking intoxicants. 

The Quran says:  "Do not commit adultery, for it is foul and improper" (17:32).

Islam's general approach in forbidding any action is not limited to its verbal condemnation, but always entails closing the doors that may lead to committing it.  For this reason, Islam forbids men and womenmeeting alone privately or in seclusion.  It does not allow wanton mixing of the sexes, forbids lecherous gazing at the opposite sex, looking at those parts or other people's bodies which Islam requires to remain covered in public, and the excessive display of physical beauty and adornment.

Islam does not simply forbid adultery, but considers it a crime as well, proposing a stiff deterrent punishment for it.  In the Quran we read:  "As for adulterer and the adulteress, flog each of them one hundred lashes; do not have any pity on them with regard to God's injunctions, if you truly believe in God and the Last Day; and let their punishment be witnessed by a number of believers" (24:2)

While proscribing indecency in general, Islam describes adultery a shameful act of obscenity, saying in the Quran: "Do not come near to any shameful indecency, whether open or secret" (6:151). 

Prohibiting adultery in this way and prescribing a specific punishment for anyone proven guilty of it indicate the gravity of the subject and God's wish, in His wisdom, for people to avoid the act itself and any other action or behaviour that may lead to it.

Adultery is strictly forbidden by Christianity as well, as both the Old and New Testaments make absolutely clear.

The seventh commandment given to Moses states:  "You shall not commit adultery", while the Old Testament says, "He who commits adultery has no sense," (Proverbs:32).  In the Book of Matthew, Jesus is quoted as saying, "But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew: 5,28).

Adultery has been branded by all Prophets as "unclean" "indecent" "profance" "capricious" and a "vile lust".  St. Paul goes even further by prohibiting mixing with audlterers, when he says, "You shall not mix with adulterers...do not mix or eat with their like...isolate the bad from amongst you" (1 Corinthians: 5,3-9).

Christianity considers adultery as the only justification for divorce.  We read in the Book of Matthew (19:9), "Whoever divorces his wife except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery".   Such a strong censure  can only show how vile and wicked adultery is taken to be in Christian teachings, which do not permit divorce as a general rule, but allow it, and may even make it compulsory, where adultery has been committed by either spouse.

4.2 Observance of religious teachings prohibiting adultery is one of the most effective methods of avoiding the risk of infection with AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.  This becomes even more significant when we understand that infection comes about chiefly as a result of sexual contact, whether between heterosexuals or homosexuals.

4.3  Just as divine religions prohibit adultery, they also forbid homosexuality, especially between men.

The Glorious Quran has on many occasions referred to the sin of the people of the Prophet Lot to take some examples: "And tell of Lot.  He said to his people: 'do you commit indencency withyour eyes open, lustfully seeking men instead of women? Surely you are an ignorant people?" (27:54-5).   Describing those people's confrontation with Lot, God Almighty says: "You have sex with males and abandon your wives, whom God has created for you:  Surely yu are great transgressors"  (26:164-166).

The Glorious Quran describes what befell the people of Lot for their persistence in perpetuating that sin, and in being the first to practice it, by saying: "And then We utterly destroyed the rest; We pelted them with rain, and evil was the rain that fell on those who were forewarned.  Surely in that there was a sign, yet most of them did not believe" (26:172-174).

4.4 Not only does Islam pronounce homosexuality as forbidden, but it also prohibits unnatural sexual activity between men and women.  Several Hadiths have reliably reported the Prophet, (peace be on him), as having strictly forbidden anal intercourse.  One such hadith say, "God shall not look at   aman who has an anal intercourse with his wife".

4.5 Islam has also prohibited sexual intercourse during menstruation.  This is made very clear in the Quran as it says: "They ask you about menstruation, say: 'It is an indisposition, so keep away from women during their menstrual periods and do not touch them until they are clean, and one they have become clean, then (you may) have sexual intercourse with them in the way God enjoined on you, for God loves those who turn to Him in repentance and keep clean" (21:22).

4.6  As it forbids adultery, Christianity also prohibits all kinds of unnatural sexual relationships, including homosexuality of men and women (Leviticus: 20,13;Romans: 1,26 and 1,27).  According to Christianity, marriages between a woman and a homosexual man and between a man and a lesbian woman are not valid.   Indeed, in the Old Testament, we find an explicit prohibition or homosexuality, as we read that, "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have commited an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them" (Leviticus: 20,13).

In his First Letter to Timothy, St. Paul says: "The law is not laid down for the just but for the...., immoral persons, sodomites..."  (Timothy 1:1,70).  In his Letter to the Romans, he says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth..., For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions; their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men comming shameless acts with men..., though they know God's decree that those who do such things deserve to die" (Romans 1:1, 18-32).