Sexuality In Islam Quotes

“A new danger lies in wait for the Arabo-Muslim societies: the ethical void, cretinization through sex, systematic infantilization. The negation of traditional references is certainly a necessary stage in our history, but the negation of those references is still a reference. The great risk is precisely non-reference. The easy models of sexual behaviour, imported from North America or Europe, relentlessly diffused through all the mass media, do not help us to find much meaning in sexuality.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“That is no doubt why, considering his tolerance to be quite broad enough, Muhammad must have decided, very early on, and after much hesitation, to reject the temporary marriage of pleasure, known as nikāḥ mut'a, which is merely prostitution under another name. Having organized sexual relations within the framework of nikāḥ and concubinage, Islam regarded as sinful anything that lay outside the consensual contracts of sexuality. As a result any distorted form of prostitution was vehemently condemned. Thus the female slave enjoyed a special status. She was required to render sexual services to her owner(s), but exclusively. The owner could not hand her over to a third party and force her into prostitution.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Circumcision, like excision indeed, is more a practice of Muslims than a practice of Islam.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Canonically and theologically, circumcision has no privileged status. It is not one of the five pillars of Islam (profession of faith, prayer, alms, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca). It is merely a sunna. The ritual surrounding it is loose, imprecise, and more spontaneous than organic. It is accompanied by no prayer. The age at which the operation is performed is not fixed in any strict way and may take place at any time between one and twelve years. The fiqh is hardly concerned with it and the Quran not at all. Furthermore there is a systematic concern on the part of Muslims to distinguish them­selves from the Jews on this matter, whereas in other cases the imitation of Jewish practices is hardly stressed in so systematic a way.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Excision of girls, as we have said, was a widely tolerated prac­tice. In principle, it ought to concern only the removal of the lower part of the cap. In fact, as we know, what is involved, except in abnormal cases, is only the semi-prepuce, which covers only the lower part of the clitoris. The excision of girls (khifāḍ) must not therefore be confused with clitoridectomy. The former is tolerated, the latter strictly prohibited. Indeed it is the only indication provided by tradition.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“And yet circumcision is an act that, according to the fiqh, is in no way compulsory. It is a sunna act, that is to say, one that is strongly recommended. The excision of girls is even less obliga­tory. It is a makruma: a pious practice, like removing a stone from the road, clearing a public drain or maintaining a collective watertap.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Circumcision is a great deal more than a matter of hygiene, or of mere custom. It is deeply rooted in Islamic mores and certainly corresponds to something fundamental.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“When impure, man is moving dangerously towards evil. The protecting angels desert him. He is no longer permitted to pray, to recite the Quran, to touch the sacred Book, even to enter a mosque. He is no longer safe. Purification is a security technique. One should resort to it as soon as possible in order to reestablish the disturbed order and to chase away the shaytans (devils), which, as we have seen, lie in wait for the slightest show of weakness.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Islamic civilization is essentially feminist. One ought to be able to deduce from this that a Muslim cannot be a misogynist. Islam and 'hatred' of women appear to be incompatible de jure.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“The Islamic view of sexuality, then, is a total one. Its aim is to integrate the sexual as everyday experience. Islam is a recognition, not a misapprehension of sexuality.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Paradise is the time of suspended pleasure. It is also the place of perpetual erection and orgasm that lasts for twenty-four years. If earthly orgasm gives some foretaste of paradise, one must admit that life in paradise is an infinite, eternal orgasm.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“The quranic Iblis is a creature of fire, he is nār, not nūr.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Islamic theology distinguishes between four sorts of creatures: the malā-ika (angels), the ins (men), the jānn (djinns) and the shaiṭān (devils). All are animated, responsible (mukallafa) and, with the exception of angels, sexual beings.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“The voice of a Muslim woman is also 'aura. Not only because the sweet words coming from her mouth must be heard only by her husband and master, but because the voice may create a disturbance and set in train the cycle of zinā.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Total nudity is very strongly advised against, even when one is 'alone'. This is because absolute solitude does not exist in a world in which we share existence with the djinns and angels.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“In this set of prescriptions, the beard enjoys a privileged position. It is indeed the symbol of virility, just as the veil is the symbol of feminity. But whereas the veil, as is normal, must conceal femi­ninity, the beard is intended on the contrary to draw attention to itself and in some sense exhibit virility. The beard is a form of masculinity. There is therefore a canonical duty to wear a beard.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“The beard is a male prerogative. It must be the object of scrupu­lous and continuous attention. Indeed five things are defined as 'natural' (mianl fiṭra): circumcision, mourning, shaving of the armpits, cutting of the fingernails and wearing a beard. Another hadith adds shaving of the pubic hair and the trimming of the moustache. On the other hand, men must not have tattoos.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Tradition has it that four categories of person incur the anger of God: 'Men who dress themselves as women and women who dress themselves as men, those who sleep with animals and those who sleep with men.' Homosexuality (liwāṭ) incurs the strongest condemnation. It is identified with zinā and it is advocated that the most horrible punishment should be applied to those who indulge in it.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Islam remains violently hostile to all other ways of realizing sexual desire, which are regarded as unnatural purely and simply because they run counter to the antithetical harmony of the sexes; they violate the harmony of life; they plunge man into ambiguity; they violate the very architectonics of the cosmos. As a result the divine curse embraces both the boyish woman and the effeminate man, male and female homophilia, auto-eroticism, zoophilia, etc. Indeed all these ʽdeviations' involve the same refusal to accept the sexed body and to assume the female or male condition. Sexual deviation is a revolt against God.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“Male supremacy is fundamental in Islam. Nevertheless the Quran does not ignore the eternal feminine.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam

“This is another aspect of nikāḥ, the obligation to satisfy one's spouse. Nikāḥ and unconsummated marriage are mutually exclusive. Abstinence of a hundred and twenty days is a maximum not to be exceeded in any circumstances.”
― Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality In Islam