Quran expert says nonmarital sex is allowed in Islam.

He now has sec… thoughts after conservative backlash - National - The Jakarta Post 12/09/19 19.11

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Quran expert says nonmarital sex

is allowed in Islam. He now has
second thoughts after
conservative backlash
Bambang Muryanto and Karina M. Tehusijarana
The Jakarta Post

PREMIUM Yogyakarta and Jakarta / Thu, September 5, 2019 / 08:28 am

An illustration of sex (Shutterstock.com/File)

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Quran expert says nonmarital sex is allowed in Islam. He now has sec… thoughts after conservative backlash - National - The Jakarta Post 12/09/19 19.11

Does the Quran allow Muslims to have sex outside of

marriage? Sunan Kalijaga Islamic State University (UIN Sunan
Kalijaga) doctoral candidate Abdul Aziz’s answer to that
question seemed to be yes, but following an uproar from
conservative Muslims, he has backed off his stance.

Aziz’s dissertation, which argues that nonmarital sex is

permitted under Islamic law, caught media attention after he
completed his doctoral defense last Wednesday.

“Sexual intercourse, both marital and nonmarital, is a sexual

human right that is protected by the state. In Islamic legal
tradition, however, it is marital intercourse that is legal, while
nonmarital intercourse is not,” Aziz wrote in the dissertation’s
abstract. “This study is aimed to discover a new theory that can
be used to justify the legality of nonmarital intercourse.”

Initially, the dissertation seemed to gain a positive response,

with Aziz’s examiners giving him a “very satisfactory” grade.
The public attention, however, has attracted critics, and the
examiners instructed him to revise his dissertation on Friday.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has also weighed in,

saying that the dissertation “fell into the category of distorted
thinking” and should be rejected because it could “damage the
[Muslim] community’s and the nation’s morals.”

“[We] ask all people, particularly Muslims, to not follow that

opinion because it could lead to acts that are forbidden by
religious law,” MUI secretary-general Anwar Abbas said in a
statement on Tuesday.

Aziz himself has agreed to revise the dissertation and “remove

several controversial sections.”

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Quran expert says nonmarital sex is allowed in Islam. He now has sec… thoughts after conservative backlash - National - The Jakarta Post 12/09/19 19.11

“I apologize to the Muslim faithful because of the controversy

created because of my dissertation,” he told reporters on
Tuesday.

The dissertation hinges on the term milk al-yamin (what one's

right hand possesses), which has been traditionally interpreted
to mean household slaves. Several verses in the Quran allow
men to have sexual intercourse with “what [their] right hand
possesses" in addition to their wives.

InASIA
NEWS BUSINESS SE the dissertation, Aziz examines
OPINIONLIFESTYLE Syrian writer
TRAVEL MULTIMEDIADEEP and thinker
PAPER MORE
Muhammad Shahrur's argument that, since LOOK EDITION
slavery is no
INDEX 8 longer allowed
INDEXor accepted in contemporary
INDEX INDEX society, the term JOBS
SHARES
milk al-yamin should be applied to consensual nonmarital sex.
POLITICS ACADEMIA NEWS VIDEO EVENTS

WORLD $ Shahrur himself is a controversial

COMMENTARY figure
DESTINATIONS
PHOTOin Islamic scholarship, WRITING
with his ideas attracting the ire of several traditional scholars CENTER
INDONESIA INSIGHT JAKPOSTDEEP
! from Egypt’s Al-Azhar University.
GUIDE LOOK IMAGES
JAKARTA ANALYSIS TO
"If we insist on saying that the phrase ‘what their right hands MOBILE
SPORTS " INTERVIEW APPS
possess’ refers to slaves, we risk having to admit that this part
POSTSCRIPT of the book is today no longer relevant," Shahrur wrote in his PUBLISH
#
book The Quran, Morality and Critical Reason. "This, however,
#
LOGOUT would contradict the axiomatic truth that Muhammad’s
$ message is eternally valid for all times."

% In a response to a commenter on his website, cited by Aziz,

Shahrur defines milk al-yamin as “a contract that includes an
agreement on a sexual relationship, so that the parties will
comply with what they have agreed on.”

Shahrur also defined adultery in a much narrower sense than

traditional Muslim scholars, saying that nonmarital sexual
intercourse should only be considered adultery in the case of a
married woman having sexual relations with someone other

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Quran expert says nonmarital sex is allowed in Islam. He now has sec… thoughts after conservative backlash - National - The Jakarta Post 12/09/19 19.11

than her husband or if the intercourse is conducted in public.

Shahrur has often criticized mainstream Islamic scholars’

interpretation of milk al-yamin and adultery, saying that they
seemed to prefer force over consent.

“[Mainstream Islamic scholars] consider ‘a right hand

possession’ to [refer to] slavery. A woman is taken into slavery
by force, goes to the slave market by force, gets shown up by
force, gets bought by force, the buyer takes her home and
sleeps with her by force, the scholars believe that after five
times of forcing, it becomes halal,” Shahrur said in an
interview with an Arabic television station in 2011. “On the
other hand, if a man and an unmarried woman willingly [have
sexual intercourse] together they say it's forbidden.”

Aziz argued that Shahrur’s conception of milk al-yamin would

help delegalize the institution of slavery in Islamic legal
systems and would help achieve Islam’s mission to “free
humanity from the chains of oppression.”

He also wrote that Shahrur’s interpretation of the term could

lead to the decriminalization of adultery, which Aziz said was
in line with the stringent requirements to prove adultery
according to Islamic law, as well as the efforts of Islamic
scholars to ensure to avoid adultery convictions as much as
possible.

“In the writer’s opinion, the concept of adultery proposed by

Shahrur is relevant to contemporary human rights and the
development of laws against sexual crimes,” Aziz wrote.

At the end of the dissertation, Aziz recommended that Islamic

law and Indonesian family law be updated to accommodate
Shahrur’s concepts, including by legalizing nonmarital sex.

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Quran expert says nonmarital sex is allowed in Islam. He now has sec… thoughts after conservative backlash - National - The Jakarta Post 12/09/19 19.11

UIN Sunan Kalijaga’s post-graduate program director

Noorhaidi said the dissertation should be revised in light of the
criticism regarding “ethics and norms that are part of the
public’s common sense.”

He said the request for revision did not violate the principle of
academic freedom because the public could still read about the
milk al-yamin concept in Aziz’s dissertation.

“The problem is his recommendations, which overstep his

capacity as a scholar,” Noorhaidi said on Tuesday.

1 Comment Sort by Oldest

Add a comment...

Ahmad Syarwan
This article is good but the title is wrong. Abdul Aziz is not a
Quranic expert.
Like · Reply · 1w

Mikal R Neff
He is though.....expertise on the Quran is a requirement
for the doctoral degree at this university....
Like · Reply · 1w

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