In the name of Allāh,
the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Peace and Blessings of Allāh on Mohammad.
DEDICATED TO
Allāh–the Glorious and the High,
Lord of the worlds
AND TO
Mohammad–who brought the world
to our feet and eternity to our arms
*
DOWRY/MAHR PAYMENT FOR SEX
Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian –and an apostate from Islam to Christianity– who has written two books, Now They Call Me Infidel and Cruel And Usual Punishment: The terrifying global implications of Islamic Law, states in her book Cruel And Usual Punishment: “In the Qur’an, the dowry is often called ujur –the word ujur in Arabic literally means “wage.” So to make the meaning less repulsive, dowry was given a different word from that of the Qur’an. It is now called mahr in Egypt. Mahr (dowry) is a technical term denoting the money that must be given to the woman in the marriage contract in exchange for enjoying her –it is simply payment for sex.” (pp. 38-39).
Response: When the man enjoys the woman doesn’t the woman enjoy the man? how is it she does not have to give him anything?
Significantly, whereas the word ujur is used for dowry in Qur’an 4:25, the word saduqat is used for dowry in Qur’an 4:4. (Using Ms. Darwish’s “wages” instead of dowry), Qur’an 4:4 states: “And give women their wages as a free gift.” The words as a FREE gift obliterates Nonie Darwish’s charge that the “wage”/dowry is a payment to the woman in exchange for sex. The “wage”/dowry could not be “free” and yet be payment for sex or for anything else.
Regarding the word saduqah in Qur’an 4:4 Muhammad Ali explains: “The word used here is saduqat, pl. of saduqah (from sidq, meaning truth), which means dowry or a nuptial gift. Sadaqah meaning charity is a different word from the same root. Other words used for dowry are mahr and sudaq.” Thus, the word mahr is used instead of “wage” to denote that, unlike a payment which is given in return for service rendered, it is given without the recipient having given anything in return for it).
Thus, the word mahr is used, not “to make the meaning less repulsive,” but only to show the difference between something earned and something received without having done or given anything for it. Nonie Darwish may be Egyptian but she clearly needs to learn/understand the Arabic language.
Even if the marriage is not consummated the woman gets the mahr/dowry as Allāh says in Qur’an 2:237: “And if you divorce them BEFORE you have touched them and you have appointed for them a portion, (pay) half of what you have appointed unless they forgo or he forgoes inwhose hand is the marriage tie. And it is nearer to dutifulness that you forgo. Nor neglect the giving of free gifts between you. Surely Allāh is Seer of what you do.”
If “wage”/dowry is payment in exchange for sex how is it that the man is yet to give her half of the “wage”/dowry, and even to give her all, when he has not had sex with her? (Such is Islam’s generosity to women).
Islam not only requires the man to give the woman mahr/ dowry even though the marriage has not been consummated, Islam requires the man to give the woman a settlement even when the marriage has not been consummated: “There is no blame on you if you divorce women while yet you have not touched them, nor appointed for them a portion. And provide for them, the wealthy according to his means and the straitened according to his means, a provision according to usage. (This is) a duty on the doers of good”–(Qur’an 2:236).
Muhammad Ali notes: “The faridah or the portion is the dowry, so that even when no dowry has been agreed upon, and marriage has not been consummated, liberality must be shown to the divorced wife, and some provision should be made for her, even though the husband may be in straitened circumstances.” (This is another instance that shows the husband is to give alimony).
And the Prophet Mohammad married a man and woman based on the amount of the Qur’an he (the man) had memorized–(Bokhari Vol. 3, 505; Vol. 6, 547, 548. Whether the hadith means that the man was to teach the woman what he knew of the Qur’an as dowry or not is irrelevant); the point is it would be preposterous to say that the man used the Qur’an as payment for sex from the woman.
Contrastingly. Whereas the Muslim woman gets “wages” (dowry/mahr) as a “free gift” what does the Christian woman gets? The Christian woman gets nothing. This is not surprising, considering that (as shown in item #99) the Christian woman is regarded as only an object of sexual release for the man, to be ruled over by her husband and in all subjection. Thus, the Christian woman is like a horse –to be ridden; given some oats, and locked in the stable till the next riding. Christianity may not practice it and Secularism may not tolerate but it is their Scripture’s decree. And passage into heaven lies in following the Scripture; so much so that heaven and earth shall pass away but not one dot of the law shall be omitted from being observed. Let the Christians’ son of God and “God,” Jesus, rehearse it: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am NOT come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot (dot) or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till ALL be fulfilled”(Amen!)–(Matt. 5:17-18).
Even after the Christian man has full usage of the Christian woman’s “sexual organs” yet (as shown in item #99) she is cursed all the way into the next world as being a ‘defiler’ and betrayer of her man. Clearly, the Christian woman was created only “for the sake of meeting the sexual pleasure of men.” “Nothing more and nothing less.” Nonie Darwish needs to lament over the grotesque misogyny in her religion.
Perhaps Nonie Darwish is subconsciously jealous/envious of the Muslim bride getting a “free” gift whereas the Christian bride gets nothing; jealous/envious that the Muslim bride and groom are Divinely instilled with love and compassion and the bride is a source of peace and comfort whereas the Christian bride is wife only to avoid fornication; jealous/envious that the Muslim bride is friend and protector and garment to her husband as he is to her whereas the Christian bride is a “transgressor” and “defiler” and betrayer of man; jealous/envious that the Muslim bride is honored as the symbol of purity and gateway to Paradise whereas the Christian bride is cursed as “defiler” etc; jealous/envious that whereas the Muslim bride is only to be divorced after all avenues of conciliation are exhausted the Christian bride can be cast aside even for a trivial case of “uncleanness;” jealous/envious that whereas the Muslim bride is Divinely entitled to alimony the Christian bride gets nothing –she has to slug it out with her “ex” in the secular court for him to give her “wages;” jealous/ envious that the Muslim bride will be with her husband and children in Paradise whereas the Christian bride is unlikely to be with her husband and children in Paradise (Jesus may have said that in Heaven there is no marriage–Matt. 22:30; but this does not mean that “sex” is taboo; for we have the sons of God coming all the way down to bed the daughters of men: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the SONS OF GOD saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them WIVES ALL OF WHICH THEY CHOSE”–Gen. 6:1-2; here we have spirits mating with humans; and God did not object; perhaps the earthly daughters were “fairer” than the heavenly ones or the “sons of God” must have gotten tired of the heavenly ones; or in all likelihood there were no women in heaven which would be in accordance with Christian teaching that woman is “defiler” of man in which event there is no place for women in the Christian heaven –heaven is only for the pure; one that “defiles” is not pure–; thus the Christian men in heaven would have to spend their time lonely and alone in the “mansions” that Jesus said he was going to prepare for them before his uncertain going and second coming; all the Christian men would be able to do in Christian heaven is read past-time Bible stories and watch the “the wolf” dwelling “with the lamb” and “the lion” eating “straw like the ox” as Isaiah 11:6-7 has it; or these bored Christian men in their boring Christian heaven will hang out together talking about and wishing they were in the Muslim Paradise, and praying, not for their daily bread as Christ exhorts them, but praying for another creation when the earth will again be filled with the “fair” “daughters of men” so they can fly down and take them as wives and, happily, be “defiled”).