Although revealed in an environement where poetry and oratory speeches were loaded with explicitly lustful and indecent language and allusions, the Quran never departs from its pattern of using respectable language and concepts.
This is particularily made clear in sura Yusuf, the "best of stories", when detailing the mistress' attempted seduction of Yusuf. The Quran beautifully combines in that context, precision in expression with a dignified vocabulary, and despite the fact that it talks about lust, utilizes the principles of piety, morals and respect without being paralysed in the process.
When the Quran addresses the themes of sex or sexual organs, its eloquence necessitates that it does not directly speak of testicles, penis or vagina. This is an established Quranic pattern accross several topics.
Contrary to the Bible with its known rude language and unsophisticated imageries, as is amply found in modern pop culture, news, and magazines, the Quran seeks not to flood the imagination with crude details so as to not trivialize certain themes.
There are ample examples, such as 2:222 where it refers to sexual intercourse by using the imagery of the farmer cultivating his tilth with tenderness and deep consideration aforehand, or as "touching" the mate 2:236,237,4:43,5:6,33:49etc. The word for 'touching' is laamastum from the root L-M-S that means skin feeling an object interactively. It is used to mean mainly sex, or at least some form of foreplay. Other terminologies used in the Quran to refer to sexual intercourse is "covering" the mate 7:189 or in the context of refraining from sex it says
"guarding the private parts" 23:5,33:35.
Farj means the space between two things. In this instance the legs. It is an eloquent, indirect reference to both men and women's sexual organs, as is used elsewhere for Mary 66:12.
In some instances where the Quran refers to women's sexual organs it literaly speaks of
60:12"what lies between their legs and hands"
among other apellations.
There is no literal equivalent word in Arabic for the ambiguous word "marriage". The Quran instead refers to "marriage" by what defines it; companionship and lawful sexual interraction. It uses 2 words; nikah and zawaj. See 2:232 where both are used. Zawaj literally in the context of the relationship between a man and woman is "coupling". Nikah literally means the sexual act and the Quran has defined what constitutes lawful sex. Whenever nikah is used as an ordinance or condoned practice it always carries this connotation of "lawful sex" instead of simply "sex" and that is why it became synonymous with "marriage", with or without consumation
33:49"O You who have believed, when you do nikah with believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, then there is not for you any waiting period to count concerning them. So provide for them and give them a gracious release".
The word is still used today during formal marriage ceremonies between the future husband and wife, as well as by the religious figure or Islamic judge during their sermon.
No comments:
Post a Comment