Q. It is mentioned in the Qur’an that sexual intercourse is permissible only with one’s wife or with a woman “your right hand possesses.” What does this phrase mean?
F. Quazi
A. Sex with anyone other than one’s wife is adulterous. Hence, it is strictly forbidden with kind of women you mentioned, whether the woman is paid or unpaid, with her consent or without. Yet it is true that the Qur’an exempts the form you have mentioned, but this form is no longer in existence, and it cannot be reinstated. The expression, “those whom your right hand possesses” refers to slaves. When slavery was practiced, Islam could not stop it because it was a global system, common in all societies. When slave women happen to be in plenty, it is necessary to provide a legitimate means of satisfying their natural needs. Therefore, Islam allowed marriage between slaves, and between a free man and a slave woman, as well as the case of the master having a relationship with a slave woman, who later becomes a “mother of his child” which raises her status, preventing her sale and paving the way to her freedom. But Islam did more than any other system to ensure that slavery would disappear. Now that it has finally disappeared from the world it cannot be reinstated in future.
