Sexual Ethics and Islam

Kecia Ali is Professor of Religion at Boston University where her research focuses on Islamic law, women and gender, ethics, and biography.

‘Relevant to most readers’ daily experience of discussion about Islam. The book is well worth reading.'

• Introduction 1  Marriage, Money, and Sex“And according to what they spend from their wealth ... ”SexIntermarriageConclusionCoda 1 2  Lesser Evils: Divorce in Islamic EthicsUntying the knotExtreme circumstancesProspects for reformConclusionCoda 2 3  “What your right hands possess”: Slave Concubinage in Muslim Texts and DiscoursesIslam and slavery: overview of sources and historyWomen, war captives, and withdrawalConclusionCoda 3 4  Prohibited Acts and Forbidden Partners: Illicit Sex in Islamic JurisprudenceProtecting chastity: the classical textsPaternity, legal fictions, and non-marital sex in contemporary Muslim thoughtConclusionCoda 4 5  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Same-Sex Intimacy in Muslim ThoughtHistoryDon’t ask, don’t tellSame-sex marriageConclusionCoda 5 6  “Reduce but do not destroy”: Female “Circumcision” in Islamic SourcesIslamic or un-Islamic?“Reduce but do not destroy”ConclusionCoda 6 7  “If you have touched women”: Female Bodies and Male Agency in the Qur’anTo whom am I speaking?A difficult verseGarments for one anotherConclusionCoda 7 8  The Prophet Muhammad, his Beloved Aishah, and Modern Muslim SensibilitiesApologetics and polemicsSearching for solaceConclusionCoda 8 9  Toward an Islamic Ethics of Sex Afterword to the 2016 editionNotesBibliographyIndex