Thursday 5 May 2011

The Phenomena of illegal sex: Whose fault?


I don't know what else to post and there's an urge to do so, so here I post my assignment. well, a positive anything is better than a negative nothing! ^^

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BY: Nur Nabilah Muhaimin,

for Understanding Islam, Us. Maulana, cfsiium, May 2011.


The Phenomena of illegal sex: Whose fault?


Everyone is responsible to prevent social disease in the society through playing their role efficiently. When one fails to do so, the disease will spread passively and it can lead to another disease and thus become something that is unmanageable. This suits an English proverb that goes “Prevention is better than cure”. As soon as a disease is identified, the doctor will trace what had caused it. The factors will be a reference to others in order to avoid the same disease occurring in other people.

In this case, we will find out what influence one to commit illegal sex since it has become a serious disease in recent years. Illegal sex in Islam is when one does any type of sexual intercourse with anybody apart from his/her lawful spouse. It can be fornication, adultery, rape and others.

The doers are obviously the ones who are to be blamed on but it is also the faults of those who don’t take in responsibility. It’s not merely an individual's fault.

Family

Foremost is family factor. Family plays a major role in shaping one’s personality.

Some of the parents of broken marriages will end up being a single mother or father. Some children find it stressful as they are longing for love and attention. This leads them to find other love from guys whom they tend to trust more than they trust their parents. They find sexual intercourse as a proof of love and trust. Children who are well connected to family are unlikely to involve in illegal sex as family is their first priority.

Besides that, there are parents who are too busy with worldly affairs that they forget that children are ‘trust’ from Allah. They simply leave the responsibility to educate the children about Islam to teachers like monitoring kids’ progress, watching out with who they befriend, listening to their problems and advising on all aspects of life. This is how parents can grow seeds of trust in their children before it’s too late to do so which is during childhood and adolescent.[1] How important parents' role is stressed in a Hadith, “‘Every child is born in a state of nature bound (fitrah). Then his parents make him a Jew, a Christian or a Magian."[2]

Media

Contemporary media’s role is becoming more crucial as it directly influences people’s mentality. It’s an indirect educational medium. However, the exploitation of girls in today’s media makes it spoiled. It's becoming serious recently because some of the girls show off their body and give seductive poses shamelessly. Most of them are celebrities who should be a role model to their fans not the otherwise. When eyes see this, it can somehow trigger the brain to have more imaginations which heads them to watch porno videos or read porno magazines like Playboys. This in turn increase the curiousity and makes them want to apply it practically. The practical can be as easy as getting services from prostitutes to as dangerous as raping and molesting kids.

In electronic and print media, especially TV that clearly exploit young ladies through the adverts in order to promote their business products. For example in, adverts for LUX, a personal care brand that shows young ladies having a shower or bath. Though it’s not showing the whole body, most people assume that she’s naked. In some adverts, the action shown has no relation with the product. Protecting their dignity is the reason why Muslim women have their own dress code which Quran highlighted in Surah Al-Ahzab:59, "O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful."[3]

Furthermore, the pictures of celebrities who overly pose for magazines like MANGGA, REMAJA, URTV, HAI and MASCULINE who are not only wearing sexy outfits but also mix freely between men-women such as hugging as if they are promoting those behaviours to the readers. This is added with movies and music videos with sexual contents which can be accessed just at the fingertips! [4]

Media’s party should be more sensitive on these issues as whether they realize or not, they are promoting free mixing between men and women to viewers and readers. The fact that people are served with semi-porn is so serious since it has a big potential to lead them to commit illegal sex.

Government

Leaders are the representatives of government. Their personality mirrors the people’s identity. The leaders must be well-mannered, know barriers between men and female and courage on implementing Islamic law. You can’t really expect the people to be good if the leaders can’t be a good icon to them.

The government is the one who decides what kind of law will be enforced in a country, either civil law or shariah law. In our country, though both kinds of law are enforced, the Hudud law remains under the jurisdiction of the secular courts.[5] Shariah law mostly covers cases within Muslim family. The correct punishments (Hudud) for committing an illicit sex are 100 lashes for an unmarried person/fornicator and stone to death for a married person/adulterer.[6]

But, currently in Malaysia, the sentence for fornicators and adulterers is imprisonment for 3 years the most or a fine not exceeding 500 ringgit or whipping of 6 strokes the most or to any combination thereof.[7] The sentence imposed seems far infirm than Hudud which implies illegal sex as a light crime. From the increase of the case number, we can assume that it fails to ignite fears in those who are thinking to commit illicit sex.

Visiting discos and pubs are usually the first step towards illicit sex and just like a root to it. Those places are commonly associated with a perfect place and night to relax and unwind for empty-heart-ed people. With an addition of the presence of alcohol drinks, most just get drowned with lust and are likely to commit illegal sex.

However, number of ‘Muslim’ pub visitors can be decreased if the authority like Jakim is given more power to do inspection in order to arrest Muslims who are caught visiting pubs and discos as well as taking alcohol. A rule to disallow Muslims to enter those places must also be applied. For example, the pub’s party must prohibit Muslim to enter the pub. After all, only the government has an authority to implement that. If they can disallow under-age people to enter and fine the pub, why not Muslims?

[1] Ken J. Rotenberg, Interpersonal Trust During Childhood and Adolescence, (New York, United States of America, Cambridge University Press, 2010), page 60.

[2] Herbert Berg, Method and Theory in the Study of Islamic Origins, (Leiden, The Netherlands, Brill, 2003), page 74.

[3] 'Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an Text and Translation, (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Islamic Book Trust, 2007), page 518.

[4] Jane Delano Brown, Jeanne R. Steele, Kim Walsh-Childers, Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media's Influence on Adolescent Sexuality, (New Jersey, United States, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, 2002), page 15.

[5] Akbar S. Ahmed, Hastings Donnan, Islam, Globalization and Post Modernity, (London, United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005), page 67.

[6] Thomas Patrick Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam, (New Delhi, India, Asian Educational Services, 2001), page 286.

[7] http://pkukmweb.ukm.my/elaw/images/stories/zakiah.pdf, Zakiah Bt. Samori, Qarinah (Circumstancial Evidence) In Adultery (Zina) Case: Analysis on Four Madhab & Provision In Malaysia And Pakistan, page 10, accessed on 22/4/2011 at 5.35pm.


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