Prepared by: Dr. Saeed Ismaeel Sini

Why Islam Imposes Punishment for Fornication?

     First of all, Allah says: {The woman and the man guilty of illegal sexual intercourse flog each of them with a hundred lashes. Let not pity withhold you in their case, in a punishment prescribed by Allah; and let a party of the believers witness their punishment.}[1] Therefore, if an Islamic government implements this law, it is only doing its duty as a representative of the majority.

     If we study free sexual relationship and its outcome, we find it one of the major contributors to many social problems, such as runaways, joining gangs, abandoned babies, committing crimes such as abortion, insecure marriages and weak family relations. No wonder Islam regulates sexual relationships in a way that permits a male or a female to satisfy the instinct of sex but also to shoulder

responsibility for its outcome. So the community’s needs are kept in balance and the individual’s rights are preserved, especially the rights of the innocent infants and children. It is their right to find someone who takes care of them without putting the whole burden on the mother. It is not fair that both the male and female enjoy sexual relations and then the male walks away from it easily. In fact, those laws or resolutions calling for free sexual relations are only legalizing men’s exploitation of women in the worst possible form.

     Even in cases of using contraceptives, we are actually depriving females from satisfying their instinct for motherhood. Besides, the problem appears in another form; i.e. depriving the community or the nation of an essential sector of the population, the youth. The number of the aged will eventually increase while the number of the younger generation decreases. This will, certainly,

have its negative social, economic impact on the nation, and affect its military capability to defend itself. In addition to that, the illegal relationship may lead to the crime of revenge because of natural jealousy.

     For all these evils of free sexual relationship, Islam, which is concerned about the rights of the female and the helpless children, assigns a severe punishment that may secure a healthy, productive relationship between the two sexes.

     It is true that the punishment is severe, but Islam requires proofs which could be considered next to impossible, in order to leave room for the two to repent and to be covered. For example, to prove a person guilty of adultery, there has to be four witnesses who are able to describe the sex act in detail. Not only that, but to protect the woman’s reputation especially, Islam assigned a severe punishment for false accusation. Allah says: {And those who accuse chaste women and do not produce four witnesses flog them with eighty lashes and reject their testimony forever.}[2]

[1] Holy Quraan, 24: 2.

[2]  Holy Quraan, 24: 4