Woman Between Islam and Western Society
4. The Problems Facing Modern Civilization
~ 195 ~
It was not without good reason that the Qur’an
commanded that sexual relationships should be
confined within the bonds of marriage:
(Lawful to you are), in wedlock, women from
among those who believe, and, in wedlock,
women from among those who have been
given the Book before you — provided that
you give them their dowers, taking them in
honest wedlock, not in fornification, nor as
secret lovecompanions.
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This
has
been
interpreted
by
Qur’anic
commentators as a clear injunction to establish
sexual relations only through marriage, and that
there should be no extra-marital relationships.
Experiments have shown that this is the only right
and natural way. Marital relationships and
fornication are not just matters of approval or
disapproval by religious authorities, but matters of
life and death. The married state is a blessing for
human society; any other is a curse.
It is significant that the new education plan released
by the U.S.
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government stresses sexual abstinence
as a preventive measure. This public exhortation to
