Salaam.
Verse 4:25 is related to Verse 24:32.
Moreover, there is more to Verse 4:25 than meets the eye.
So I thought, and wrote the following article: (I request the honorable moderator and members of this forum to honor me with their studied comments.)
4:25:
“And he who does not have the means wherewith to wed free believing women, they may wed believing girls from among those whom your right hands posses. And Allah has full knowledge about your faith. You are one from another: Wed them with the leave of their owners, and give them their dowers, according to what is reasonable: they should be chaste, not fornicators, nor taking adulterous. However, after they have been taken in wedlock, if they commit obscenity, their punishment is half that of free married women. This is for those who fear undue botheration. And it is better for you if you would exercise patience. God is Very Forgiving, Consistently merciful.”
There are a lot of gross discrepancies in the traditional interpretation of 4:25:
Regarding: “This is for those who fear undue botheration”:
Here the word “this” is taken by the traditional exegetes to mean the permission (not encouragement) to marry believing slave girls. That is to say, (according to the traditional interpretation,) this permission to marry believing slave girls is for those who, lacking in the wherewithal to marry free women, fear that they may commit unlawful sex if they do not marry soon.
This interpretation also means that they have translated the word that I have here taken to mean “undue botheration”, to mean unlawful sex.
But the fact is that this permission or encouragement to marry slave girls is mentioned in the verse much before the mention of “This is for those who fear undue botheration”. In between there are intervening narratives:
Examine the verse again:
“And he who does not have the means wherewith to wed free believing women, they may wed believing girls from among those whom your right hands posses. And Allah has full knowledge about your faith. You are one from another: Wed them with the leave of their owners, and give them their dowers, according to what is reasonable: they should be chaste, not fornicators, nor taking adulterous. However, after they have been taken in wedlock, if they commit obscenity, their punishment is half that of free married women. This is for those who fear undue botheration. And it is better for you if you would exercise patience. God is Very Forgiving, Consistently merciful. “
Finally, after the command to exercise lenience regarding the punishment of slave girls we have: “(Even) this (lenient punishment of only 50 lashes) is (only meant) for (the satisfaction of) those who fear undue botheration. And it is better for you if you would exercise patience. God is Very Forgiving, Consistently merciful.
In other words, in the verse, way after permission to marry believing slave girls, we have the command to show lenience to the slave girls who commit obscenity after entering into such wedlock. Soon after this command to show lenience, we have: “This is for those who fear undue botheration”. This is followed by the clarification that it is better to be patient (thus remitting even this half punishment).
From the above mentioned discussion, we understand that the verse 4:25 does not corroborate the meaning pedaled by the traditionists that permission to marry believing slave girls is only for those who fear that they have run out of patience regarding their modesty!
The traditional interpretation will also mean that you are not in any way encouraged, but rather just permitted to marry believing slave girls! And that too only in case you fear that you could no more control yourselves!
First of all, this sounds like saying that believing slave girls are rather inferior!
This diametrically contradicts 24:32, wherein marriage of reformed slave girls is encouraged.
What is the message such an interpretation has for the young men belonging to our twenty first century?
That in this modern age we do not have such divinely ordained easy facility to marry! Either, Allah is biased against us, or we must conclude that the shari’a does have some alternative for us. Otherwise it will be taken for granted that we do have a special privilege that Allah will certainly remit our commitment of obscenities to a considerable extent!
Once this message sinks in, Western culture will altogether overwhelm the Muslim World. All importance will be attached to mere (religious) symbols. And shedding of blood for the sake of religious symbols will dominate world politics. Integrity of character will become archaic.
But if it is the punishment of the slave girl is what Qur’an means, then the squalid state of life that used to be the lot of those girls and the great struggle and patience that was needed for their redemption will become apparent.
Regards,
A. Ismail Sait.