Rape in Islamic Law: Difference between revisions

The portion of the verse which instructs slaveowners to "force not [their] maids to prostitution" has traditionally been understood in its simplest sense, which prohibits slaveowners from playing the role of a pimp and trafficking their slave women - such a business built on illegal intercourse is of course prohibited and, understood this way, the verse says nothing of novel import. Another accepted sense of this verse is that if a female slave desires her (or, say, her child's) freedom, her master ought to give her some legal means by which to pursue it, the alternative being her feeling compelled to prostitute herself to earn the funds necessary to purchase that freedom (traditional tafsirs also mention the also undesirable possibility of a master forcing a slave to prostitution as a condition for her freedom). Since such a temptation on the part of the slave girl is all the more plausible given the likelihood that she was captured in a war or raid where her people were both slaughtered and enslaved (leaving her with no means), and so the verse concludes by saying that if a slave girl is driven to such behavior, then Allah will be forgiving. And in the simpler sense, if her master forces her to prostitution, then Allah will forgive her for what was not in her control.<ref>See [https://tafsir.app/qurtubi/24/33 Tafsir Qurtubi 24:33] in particular; see also [https://tafsir.app/tabari/24/33 Tafsir al-Tabari 24:33], [https://tafsir.app/ibn-katheer/24/33 Tafsir Ibn Kathir 24:33], and [https://tafsir.app/24/33 Tafsirs 24:33] in general</ref>

==See Also==