Pre-islamic Age of Ignorance: In Pre-islamic Age of Ignorance, adultery was seen in every aspect of life. Most men did not regard adultery as a shameful thing, and even considered it a source of pride for themselves. Women having intercourse with other women was generally not met with any reaction. In economic terms, there were those who were forced into prostitution, those who lived a life of friendship, and those who committed adultery in places designated for commercial purposes. In the Jahiliyyah period, we see that the marriage practice inherited from Prophet Abraham was corrupted, marriages were invented under the names of “haden, istibda, bedel”, and some forms of prostitution were called marriage.[456] We will deal with this issue in the section on marriage. We will analyse fornication in the Jahiliyyah period in three stages.

1- As a trading house: Many people would gather and have sexual intercourse with a woman. Since the woman was a prostitute, she did not feel the need to avoid it. They would hang flags in the house where they were so that their location would be known. If a woman became pregnant and gave birth to a child, the men who slept with her would be called to gather around her. At the same time, an expert called “Kâif” was also called there. This expert would look at the child’s physiognomy and decide who the child resembled among the men.

was accepted as his son. The man to whom he was attributed could not refuse to accept the child.[457]

Some of the Arabs used to make young girls and concubines sit in a house and commit fornication. They used to hang a flag over the doors so that everyone would know that fornication was taking place in that house. These houses were called mawâhir. If one of the women in these houses refused to commit this disgrace, her master would force her to do so.[458]

2- As keeping a mate: Haden in the Jahiliyyah period was a woman who could not commit adultery because she was free, living a mistress life with a man. Such women were called “Müttehizat-ı Ahdân”. In this period, it was considered very shameful for a free woman to commit adultery. For this reason, free women used to have sexual intercourse by keeping secret friends; such unions were called “Nikāh al-Hadn.”[459] Ibn ‘Abbas says that such women kept only one friend, and the people of Jahiliyyah considered the overt fornication haram, but the secret fornication permissible. In the Jahiliyyah, the price was in the form of two men exchanging their wives. One man would say to another man, “Give me your wife and I will give her to you,” and they would exchange their wives.[460]

3- By coercion: There was a practice called istibdâ, whereby the husband would send his wife to a noble man and get pregnant by him in order to have a noble son. The husband would say to his wife, “Tell this or that man and ask him to sleep with you.”[461] It is also known that Abdullah b. Ubayy Ibn Salool forced his concubines, Musayka and Umayma, to commit adultery.[462]

ISLAM:

As a trading house (for prostitution[463]): Punish both of you who commit adultery, and if they repent and become good, then cease to punish them and do not torment them, for Allah is All-accepting and All-merciful in repentance.[464] The adulterous man shall not marry any woman except an adulterous woman or a polytheist, and the adulterous woman shall not marry any man except an adulterous woman or a polytheist. This is forbidden to the believers. [465]

Friendship: Those of you whose financial condition is not favourable for marriage with believing and free women. Let them marry the believing concubines that they have. Allah knows best which of you has faith. You are all of the same lineage. Marry them with the permission of their guardians, provided they are chaste, abstain from adultery and do not keep secret friends. And give them the customary amount of mahr. If they commit adultery while they are married, inflict on them half the punishment that is to be inflicted on free women. This is for those among you who fear that they will sin. Otherwise, it is better for you if you are patient. Allah is forgiving and merciful.

Forced intercourse: Do not force your concubines who wish to remain chaste to prostitution for the sake of your worldly interests. Whoever forces them, let him know that Allah is forgiving and merciful towards them after they have been forced.

The Holy Qur’an, in addition to pronouncing the verdict of adultery, warns men and women separately, drawing attention to the factors that bring them closer or trigger them.

      Tell the believing men not to fix their eyes (on the forbidden) and guard their chastity. For this is a purer behaviour for them. Surely Allah is well aware of what they are doing.

Say to the believing women that they should keep their eyes away from looking at what is unlawful and guard their private parts. Let them not display their ornaments except what is visible. Let them let the ends of their headscarves hang down to below their collars. They should not show their ornaments and their charms to anyone except their husbands, their fathers, their fathers-in-law, their own sons, their step-sons, their brothers, their brothers’ sons, their brothers’ sons, their sisters’ sons, their sisters’ sons, Muslim women, slaves under their hands, male servants whose sexual desire has been extinguished, and male children who are not yet aware of the private parts of women. They should not walk with steps that make a noise, so that their ornaments and glamour, which they conceal from foreign eyes, may be seen.

TODAY:

As a trading house (prostitution): Today, there are well-known commercial establishments of this kind. With the absence of these places, it is predicted that prostitution will be reduced to the streets. The fact that they are under control because they are workplaces established on the basis of trade may seem to serve the idea of preventing them from spreading everywhere, but if this law was imposed because of their real filth, we can also say that there is no longer anything to prevent them from reaching the neighbourhoods.

The mate life: This type of relationship is one of the indispensable conditions of Jahiliyyah. Because its formation is very diverse. It exists for many reasons such as the excess income of the uncontrolled nafs, the distancing of the society from the fear of Allah, the association of this action with freedom, etc. Throughout the history of mankind, there is hardly any society that does not live a life of friendship. Only believers are exempt from this.

Forced relationship: Unfortunately, this situation is also common today. Individual diagnoses made by analysing those who are caught do not lead us to a conclusion as to why these situations arise. Therefore, it is necessary to address the issue of women who are forced into forced intercourse from a social perspective.

Fornication is a general name given to all kinds of sexual intercourse without marriage. The woman who commits this act is called a prostitute. The word kahpe, which is etymologically[470] related to the word “coughing” in Arabic, means immoral, dishonest woman in our language. This name was considered appropriate because these women in the Jahiliyya period revealed their location by coughing in the darkness of the night. There is no name for a man who committed this act in the Jahiliyyah. However, the description of the man’s action is no different from the descriptions given to relationships that are considered natural. Although the woman is called a bitch for committing adultery, the work done by the man, who is his interlocutor, is described as “the dirt of his hand”. If there is immorality in the middle, why should it be accepted as natural when it comes to the man while it is binding on the woman!

The fact that the woman gets a bad name after the intercourse and the man’s act is seen as natural is the most crucial point of all these types of adultery. Because this acceptance gives a licence to men who do not fear Allah to continue with these acts. While society’s reaction to adultery is to insult the woman with insulting words, the acceptance of the man’s action as a natural situation will bring about formations that are ready for abuse. If a person who does not fear Allah knows that he has nothing to lose and that he will not receive any reaction from the society, it means that he will not hesitate to continue adultery. This person will even take it as a matter of pride to talk about these acts when he is together with people like him.

As long as this mentality becomes established, it will be natural that those who are inclined to prostitution in the sectoral sense, women traffickers and trading houses will increase. Today, this trade, which has become the biggest gain of illegal organisations and dark forces, gains strength with the number of customers. If it were not for this idea, these people would start to turn to other professions as they would not be able to earn big incomes. The abundance of earnings due to the abundance of customers drives the prostitution market to constantly find new and young women. This causes the incidents of young girls being forced or deceived to increase continuously. Thus, the woman has become a completely disposable item. However, this is not the case in Islam.

In order to prevent any of these situations from occurring, Islam has introduced taking more than one wife, provided that it is fair. Although its wisdom is not understood by some circles at first glance, this licence closes all the ways of prostitution that have descended to the neighbourhoods, the use of women as objects, the sale of meat for the sake of a morsel, lying, immorality, shamelessness, worthlessness, vulgarity and adultery.

Let us briefly touch upon the issue of taking more than one wife, but not in too much detail. Because of the difference between not taking more than one wife and not accepting this commandment, many people leave Islam. It is the most natural right of a Muslim to be content with one wife. Disliking a commandment given by Islam, on the other hand, represents judgement and dislike of the one who gave the commandment, and is therefore something that only disbelievers do. Those who, under the influence of those who engage in fruitless and aimless discussions, think that these two statements have the same meaning without knowing this distinction, are not even aware that they are actually disliking the command of Allah. The purpose, reason and wisdom of taking more wives are as follows:

First of all, the name of this licence is not polygamy, but polyandry. This is because the verse itself limits polygamy to four wives, in contrast to the situations caused by adultery. This facility is not for men to establish a harem. For this, the condition of acting justly between the spouses has been imposed. The main reason for giving men the right to take more than one wife is to avoid interfering with the generation. A woman who is married to more than one man cannot identify the child born as a result of having intercourse with her husbands in the same period. This situation will lead to the rapid deterioration of the generation, families who do not take care of the child and distorted relationships within the family. The reasons are not limited to this. This licence is a balance for the situation caused by the rapid increase in the number of girls in the world; it is a refuge for girls orphaned after the war and for widows. The common desire of all women forced into sexual intercourse is a morsel of bread and a warm home.

[Fornication: Any sexual intercourse without marriage

[456] Ali Osman Ateş, All aspects of Islam in Asr-ı saadet, beyan publications c.2 p.37

[457] Ibrahim Canan, Qutub-i Sitte Translation and Commentary, Akçağ publications: 15/539-540

[458] Muhammad ‘Ali Sâbuni, Tafsir of Ahkâm, Ist. 1984, Shamil Publications, vol. II p. 203

[459] Tabari, Jami al-Bayan, v, 19

[460] Ali Osman Ateş, All aspects of Islam in Asr-ı saadet te Islam, beyan publications, c.2, pp.60-61

[461] Bukhari, Sahih, 1999, vol. 6, 132

[462] Muslim, Tafsir, 27

[463] The form of adultery in exchange for money

[464] Surah al-Nisa, Verse 16

[465] Surat al-Nur, 3rd verse

[Surah al-Nisa, Verse 25

[467] Surat al-Nur, Verse 33

[Surah Nur, 30th verse

[469] Surat al-Nur, 31st verse

[470] Origin of a word