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An allegation by Islamophobes on the internet; they claim the Quran allows sexwith pre-pubescent girls, this is a hateful and bigoted allegation that has noother intention but to demonize Muslims. By Yahya SnowOf course this claim contains no truth and is absurd. There are abundant claims ofthis fallacious and hateful nature on the internet. The internet is an unregulatedmedia which means it can be a safe-haven for all sorts of hate-mongers andaberrations; in this case their vile and unscholarly claims are directed atMuslims.I am a student of comparative religion and it astounds me that anybody can makesuch sullying claims against any religion, through study you realise that allreligions tech good basic morals and encourage good and just actions.Another aspect of this bizarre claim that truly saddens me is that this ignorantclaim is supported by some Christian evangelical groups on the internet. I sayanybody who supports claims of this nature has nothing to do with any religion buthas everything to do with the devil’s work. My message to any Christian whosupports such dehumanising claims is thus; fear God, for you are working inequity.Having condemned their actions as hateful, ignorant and as propaganda used todemonize Muslims we must do the scholarly thing and look at their claim and showit to be false in a scholarly fashion so that people who may be unsure realisethat the Quran does not support pedophilia. Let us examine their claim. They claim that the Quran, chapter 65 verse 4, allows pedophilia. The verse inquestion is speaking of…As their fallacious claim is hinged on this referenceallow us to quote an English translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali:65:4- Such of your women as have passed the age of monthly courses, for them theprescribed period, if ye have any doubts, is three months, and for those who haveno courses (it is the same): for those who carry (life within their wombs), theirperiod is until they deliver their burdens: and for those who fear Allah, He willmake their path easy.As you can see, the verse is actually pertaining to divorce and it is notinstructing Muslims in pedophilia. One may ask how did the Islamophobes come tosuch a horrific allegation. Is it a totally baseless allegation or do they supportit with some sort of argumentation?Well their allegations are based on two fallacious arguments, both of which areaddressed:Their first argument:Their allegation is in fact based on ‘those who have no courses’. They allege thatthis term refers to those who are still pre-pubescent. They are correct; it doesrefer to those who are yet to have their period. The problem here is that theislamophobic critic adds into this verse their own interpretation. They allegethat this verse means that Muslims can have sex with pre-pubescent girls(paedophilia) as Muslims are allowed to conduct marriages between immature girlsand men. This, of course, is their mischievous addition to the text. It may foolthe one who is unversed with the context and the norms of the time in Arabia.In Semitic communities, including Jewish communities (the community of Jesusincluded too) people would marry off their daughters to older men despite theirdaughters being immature (i.e. pre-pubescent). The girls would have to wait formaturity (ie puberty) before consummating the marriage. Of course (in Islam) oncethe girl has reached a mature age she decides if she wants the marriage to stand(I stress this so nobody goes away with the idea that Islam allows forced
 
marriage). If she agrees upon it then she can consummate the marriage and live ashusband and wife. The term to describe this (marrying off before maturity) wouldbe ‘betrothal’, the most well known example of betrothal in history would be thatof Mary being betrothed to Joseph, before Mary and Joseph came together forconsummation (i.e. before Mary’s full maturity) she became pregnant with Jesus viaimmaculate conception.This example is not given to digress but to illustrate that this did happen it isan example that Christians, Jews and Muslims can relate to. None of thecommunities mentioned (Islamic, Christian or Jewish) allowed sex with the girlbefore maturity so any accusation that disagrees with this fact is a falseaccusation. As we are speaking of Muslims I feel compelled to show that Islam doesnot allow sex with immature girls. This will be highlighted through two examples:1. Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) took part in this type of union too wherethe parents of a lady named Aisha betrothed their daughter (Aisha) to Muhammad(pbuh) and Muhammad (pbuh) and the parents of the girl waited until she hadreached puberty before consummation of the marriage was allowed to take place.This is a recorded fact in history and the waiting period was roughly three years.2. The all-encompassing example in this regard is given by looking at Islamic Lawwhich is based on the Quran and the teachings of the last Prophet of Allah. So thebigot really should have looked at Islamic law (Jurisprudence) concerning marriagebefore making such an allegation. Islamic law does not allow sex with minors (bothgirls and boys). According to Islamic Law males can only have sexual contact witha female, if both parties are physically and mentally mature. The physical aspectrefers to the maturity (having reached puberty) and mentally mature refers tosomebody who is mentally capable (for example, you may have a mentally handicappedlady who has attained physical maturity but may be mentally handicapped, thus shewould be deemed to be amongst those who are not eligible for marriage).Their second argument:The alternative argument follows a slightly different despite leading to the sameallegation. The argument follows the same unscholarly skeleton as their firstargument; both arguments are built on their own interpolations and interpretationsinto the clear text of the Quran.In this case they bring forth another verse from the Quran (33:49) and try toimpose their understanding of the verse into the previously mentioned Quranicverse (65:4); I will quote an English translation of the Quran of the new verse,33:49-O ye who believe! When ye marry believing women, and then divorce them before yehave touched them, no period of 'Iddat have ye to count in respect of them: sogive them a present. And set them free in a handsome manner.Just to help the reader understand an Iddah/Iddat is merely a woman's post maritalwaiting period (of time), this period of time must expire before she marriesagain. There are four wisdoms behind the Iddat period (given by Abdul-Karim Zidan,Nazarat fi ash-Shari`ah al-Islamiyyah):1- To discern whether the woman is pregnant or not.2- Shari`ah has ordained the period of `Iddah to avoid any confusion of lineagewhich may result from the woman's pressing need of marriage.
 
3- The period a woman spends in `Iddah whether short or otherwise sheds light onthe seriousness of marriage and how far it is a sacred bond.4- It allows the man and the woman to think twice before breaking up the familytie, especially in cases where divorce is revocable. (Source: The KuwaitiEncyclopaedia of Fiqh)So, in short, the Quran (33:49) teaches us that that there is no Iddat if the mandid not touch the wife (i.e. he did not have sex with her). However, for theimmature girl we realise she has an Iddat. One may wonder what is the benefit foran immature girl to have an Iddat. We must remember that the girl’s family wouldhave been responsible for setting up the marriage therefore any breaking of thismarriage contract would have been between the husband (and/or his family) and thefamily of the girl. Family ties are very important in Islam therefore an Iddatgives the two parties a period of time to reconcile. In short, emotions would bemore prominent in this type of divorce as opposed to a divorce between a maturefemale and male.Going back to their claim; the Islamophobe uses verse 33:49 and then suggests thatthe previously mentioned verse (65:4) allows sex with pre-pubescent girls as 65:4teaches Muslims that girls who have not had puberty have an Iddat if they aredivorced. This is their claim, it is not substantiated by the Quran, and nowheredoes the Quran allow sex with pre-pubescent girls. The Islamophobe uses textualacrobatics and his own interpolations in order to argue for his allegation.The Quran gives a general instruction in 33:49 but simply gives an exception in65:4. So it is clear that girls (immature) who have been married and are divorcedare afforded an Iddat despite not having had sex with her husband. These girls areimmature girls who have never even lived with the husband never mind having hadsex with the husband. These immature girls live with their parents/guardians untilthey reach maturity and only after that they can consummate the marriage if thegirl agrees to the union. Contrary to the Islamophobes’ claims these girls are notallowed to have sex with the husband until they reach maturity. This is proven bythe following five pieces of evidence:1.The Prophet Muhammed married an immature girl and waited three years (i.e.waited for her to reach maturity before consummating the marriage, this isdocumented in the reference section).(1) This action of the Prophet Mohammed showsMuslims that sex with pre-pubescent girls is not allowed, this is evidenced by thefact that the Prophet Mohammed did not consummate the marriage immediately (i.e.when the girl was pre-pubescent).(4) This action scuppers the Islamophobe’sargument because the actions of the Prophet oppose their unscholarly claims.2.Islamic Law is based on the Quran and the actions of the Prophet Muhammed.Islamic Law does not allow sex with pre-pubescent girls, in fact Islamic Law doesnot allow sex with minors (both girls and boys), and this is shown in al-Fath byAl-Hafiz ibn Hajar. According to Islamic Law males can only have sexual contactwith a female, if both parties are physically and mentally mature. This is a keypoint as the Law is based on the Quran as well as teachings of the Prophet so ifthe Islamophobe was correct then Islamic Law would allow sex with pre-pubescentgirls. This is not the case and pours a comprehensive refutation upon theperverted claims of the Islamophobe. (3)3.No mufassireen (commentators of the Quran) or companion of the Prophetviewed the verse 65:4 as allowing sex with immature girls. The mufassireen andcompanions of the Prophet are authoritative sources on the Quran and if they didnot deem it to allow pre-pubescent sex then it is safe to say that the Quran doesnot allow such a thing.4.The Quran (4:6) illustrates to us quite clearly that there is an ‘age of
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