1. Marital Rape in Islam
This issue it is actually not as simple as the headline suggested. Islam never condones any act of sexual or physical violence.
The Prophet (SAW) said: “There is to be no harm done or reciprocation of harm.” [Sahih Ibn Maajah].
Sheikh Ibn al-`Uthaymin, the well-known Saudi scholar, explained this hadith and added that a husband should either refrain or enjoy her company in such a way that does not harm her.
Islam teaches us that both husband and wife have duties towards each other.
Ibn Hibban narrated: the wife of ‘Uthman ibn Madh’oon complained to the Messenger of Allah (SAW) that her husband had no need for women. During the days he would fast and at night he would pray. … The Prophet then told him: “As for you, you pray during the night and you fast during the day. Certainly, your wife has a right upon you and your body has a right upon you so pray and sleep and fast and break your fast.” [Sahih Ibn Hibban]
In matters of sex, it works both ways. Because in Islam, sex is considered as a basic need (like food). So both spouses must strive to fulfil this need. It is not unilateral as the headline suggests.
If a husband does not provide and satisfy the (sexual or other) needs of his wife, he is also sinful because he did not fulfil his duty and responsibility to his wife.
Islam stresses the responsibility of a husband to treat his wife with love and respect. A man’s treatment of his wife is also a measure for the perfection of his faith as in the hadith where the Prophet (SAW) said: “The most perfect of the believers in their belief are those with the best manners, and the best of you are those who are best with their wives.” [Riyadhus Shalihin]
2 – The headline is misleading. The issue of marital rape is not exclusive to Islam. In Common law, the consent to sex was implied upon agreement to marry. The very concept of marital rape was treated as an impossibility.
This was illustrated most vividly by Sir Matthew Hale, in his 1736 legal treatise Historia Placitorum Coronæ or History of the Pleas of the Crown, where he wrote that such a rape could not be recognized since the wife “hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract.” In contrary, Islam empowered women with personal rights and individual liberties prior to this as early as the 600’s.
The Malaysian Penal Code also does not expressly recognize marital rape being under S375. The application of the section on rape is still exempted from married couples. The exception provides, “Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife by a marriage which is valid under any written law for the time being in force, or is recognized in Malaysia as valid, is not rape.”
In addition, the only way for a case of marital rape to be prosecuted successfully is to rely on S326A and S352A. These mentioned sections recognizes marital rape as the crime of causing hurt to one’s spouse.
Liberal media should stop portraying Islamic values as archaic and obsolete with misleading headlines and out-of-context quotations.
I urge the people to be open and try to understand that Islam did not come a regime of oppression, but it was revealed as a system of values that guides men and empowers women.
Wan Muhammad Asyraf Wan Mohd Fadzli
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of, and should not be attributed to, ISMA or ISMAWeb.
