The Qur’an and the Prohibition of Adultery

“And nor come nigh to adultery: For it is an indecent (deed) and an evil way.”  Surah Al-Isra’, 17, verse 32

Adultery, prostitution, sex without responsibilities, promiscuous sexual behaviors and fornication are all responsible for the majority of cases of venereal and sexually transmitted diseases, and the rapidly spreading highly debilitating/fatal syndrome of the Acquired Immune Deficiency (AIDS), the plaque of the twentieth century.

If there is one community in the world now that could possibly, and correctly, say that it is immune, or should be immune to AIDS, this should be the Muslim community.  This,  of  course,  depends  on  one  basic  condition:  to  abide  to  their Qur’anic commandments.

Nevertheless, most of the Muslim nations and till the moment do not consider AIDS as an important health problem. In 1993, of the Muslim countries in the middle east with a total population close to half a billion, only 366 AIDS cases have been reported, though there was a claim that the actual number was much higher than the reported one [Athar, 1995].

So far we have been discussing the health preventive and promotive effects inherent in the Qur’an. We tried to make hard selections in presenting only few of the many Qur’anic verses that could be related to the specific health issue. We have shown how faith and belief in the Qur’an, even just listening to recited Qur’an can have profound spiritual and physiological healing effects. We have also discussed the concept of justice as a central goal of the Qur’anic revelation and of sending the Prophets. In that it could be made use of to face problems of inequities as to the access to health care, in the distribution of wealth and power within nations and between different nations, injustice in the human relations between individuals, sexes, races, societies and nations; all have their profound evil effects on human health and are responsible for a major part of our present public health dilemma.

We have also discussed that important issue of women and how the Qur’an, contrary to the dominating contemporary media believes has honored women in every respect, something which could solve one of the formidable problems facing the current women’s health.