Women In Islam versus Judaeo-Christian Tradition The Myth & The Reality
8. Adultery
Adultery is considered a sin in all religions. The Bible decrees the
death sentence for both the adulterer and the adulteress (Lev. 20:10).
Islam also equally punishes both the adulterer and the adulteress
(24:2). However, the Quranic definition of adultery is very different
from the Biblical definition. Adultery, according to the Quran, is the
involvement of a married man or a married woman in an extramarital
affair. The Bible only considers the extramarital affair of a married
woman as adultery (Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 22:22, Proverbs
6:20-7:27). "If a man is found sleeping with another man's wife, both
the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the
evil from Israel" (Deut. 22:22). "If a man commits adultery with
another man's wife both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to
death" (Lev. 20:10).
According to the Biblical definition, if a married man sleeps with an
unmarried woman, this is not considered a crime at all. The married man
who has extramarital affairs with unmarried women is not an adulterer
and the unmarried women involved with him are not adulteresses. The
crime of adultery is committed only when a man, whether married or
single, sleeps with a married woman. In this case the man is considered
adulterer, even if he is not married, and the woman is considered
adulteress. In short, adultery is any illicit sexual intercourse
involving a married woman. The extramarital affair of a married man is
not per se a crime in the Bible. Why is the dual moral standard?
According to Encyclopaedia Judaica, the wife was considered to be the
husband's possession and adultery constituted a violation of the
husband's exclusive right to her; the wife as the husband's possession
had no such right to him. 15 That is, if a man had sexual intercourse
with a married woman, he would be violating the property of another man
and, thus, he should be punished. To the present day in Israel, if a
married man indulges in an extramarital affair with an unmarried woman,
his children by that woman are considered legitimate. But, if a married
woman has an affair with another man, whether married or not married,
her children by that man are not only illegitimate but they are
considered bastards and are forbidden to marry any other Jews except
converts and other bastards. This ban is handed down to the children's
descendants for 10 generations until the taint of adultery is
presumably weakened.
The Quran, on the other hand, never considers any woman to be the
possession of any man. The Quran eloquently describes the relationship
between the spouses by saying: " And among His signs is that He created
for you mates from among yourselves, that you may dwell in tranquillity
with them and He has put love and mercy between your hearts: verily in
that are signs for those who reflect" (30:21). This is the Quranic
conception of marriage: love, mercy, and tranquillity, not possession
and double standards.