Sex in Islam

One of the more controversial topics in the modern study of Islam, concerns the relative status of women and the treatment and civil rights of non-Islamic minorities within the context of Islamic law.  This qualitative research project will look at a very narrow topic within Islamic law which addresses both issues.  The aim of the research is to bring to light Muhammad’s teaching and practice on this subject through reading and analysis of primary source document references to al ‘azl and its rejection in the proper treatment of non-Muslim captive women.  If religious law (Sharia) is to change in the modern context, it must surely begin with the more problematical pronouncements found in the foundational texts of Islam.  The purpose of this study is to illustrate one such practice while attempting to answer the question, how is this aspect of the Prophet’s behavior (Sunnah) to be interpreted in the modern age?  My hope is that this study will benefit liberal Muslims who seek to reform Islam for the 21st century context.  It is not my purpose to offend any Muslim readers by this project, but to illustrate that all religions must find a way to deal with their darker texts in a globalized world where universal human rights across cultural and religious barriers will become the  most important issue of the 21st century.

“Carnivalesque” is perhaps the best, if not the only way to describe what was going on at the Bab al-Saghir Cemetery that hot summer afternoon in 2008.  In front of the graves of the Prophet’s wives, Shi‘i pilgrims could buy Viagra, sex-enhancement creams, and massage oils.  Sexual mores were normally strictly guarded in Syria and medicines were usually available only at pharmacies.  Yet, there in one of the most historically and religiously significant cemeteries in Damascus, makeshift vendors sold an array of sex-related items.  In order to analyze this phenomenon, this article draws on Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the “carnivalesque.”  First, it provides a short background of Twelver Shi‘ism in Syria and explains how Shi‘i religious tourism encouraged the development of black markets.  Then, it examines how Shi‘i pilgrimage, which occurred all year around, but peaked during Muharram, fostered an attitude that liberated Shi‘is from prevalent social norms and emphasized “grotesque” imagery and practices, including blood, death, and sex.  In short, it follows Michael Taussig’s call for anthropologists to attend to the transgressive aspects of religious ritual.

From my last year’s correspondence with a London-based African Muslim Lady
Parts
I – About today’s Fake World
II – About today’s Prevailing Materialism and Total Lack of Spirituality
III – About the Global, Full, Deception
IV – About the Islamic Veil (Hejab)
V – About today’s desecrated, fake mosques
VI – Reminiscences from the war front between Iran and Iraq
https://megalommatiscomments.wordpress.com/2017/09/04/about-the-islamic-veil-and-the-related-false-dilemma-world-deception/