There is a bizarre rape story out of Nigeria where Uroko Onoja, a wealthy businessman, reportedly died after being raped by his multiple wives. Polygamy is common in Nigeria and the wives reportedly became jealous with the husband’s focus on his sixth and youngest wife.

Uroko Onoja was reportedly pulled from the bed by his five other wives and attacked with knives and sticks. The wives demanded sex and, over his resistance, he was forced to comply until he finally collapsed.

Police are searching for the women who ran into the jungle after realizing that their husband was dead.

Since Sharia law is imposed in Nigeria, the case raises an interesting question. Many countries maintain that a wife may not refuse a demand for sex with her husband. This appears to be based on various religious passages:

Muhammad said: “If a husband calls his wife to his bed and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning” (Bukhari 4.54.460).

He also said: “By him in Whose Hand lies my life, a woman can not carry out the right of her Lord, till she carries out the right of her husband. And if he asks her to surrender herself she should not refuse him even if she is on a camel’s saddle” (Ibn Majah 1854).

However, some sites point out that the meaning is different from men and women:

The Prophet said: “When a man calls his wife to his bed (for intercourse) and she refuses and he spends the night upset with her, the angels keep on cursing her till the morning.” [Al-Bukhaari and Muslim]

If we study the wording which is reported in the above Prophetic narration, we will find out that the pronouns which are used refer to the feminine. For instance, “she refuses”, “upset with her”, “cursing her”, and all these refer to the pronoun ‘She’ which cannot be used for a male.

Therefore, the pronoun ‘her’ in the narration refers to the wife and we have not heard any linguist or grammarian who said that the pronoun ‘she’ or ‘her’ could refer to the male as well.

As regards the address (speech) that is directed to men, the women are included as well, but it is the men who are mentioned as they are predominant.

Allaah Says (what means): {And establish prayer and give Zakaat.}[Quran 2:43]. Allaah also Says (what means): {O you who have believed, fear Allaah.}[Quran 2:278]. Ath-Tha’aalibi when interpreting the above verses, said: “The address here is directed to men and women, but the style [in the Arabic language] is directed to men as this is the predominant style in Arabic.”

To conclude, it is not correct to interpret the above narration with what the questioner mentioned, that if the husband does not answer the call of his wife to bed, the angels curse him until the morning.

However, we mentioned in Fatwa 90306 that a husband should fulfil the desire of his wife for sexual intercourse according to his ability because the nature of a man differs from that of the woman, as their ability for sexual intercourse differs.

Allaah Knows best.

Given this different interpretation for men and women, a religious argument will not be particularly helpful for these women. However, if a husband may force a woman to have sex, what are the limits for husbands in the use of force for a “Sharia court”?

A New Jersey court has often been cited for the clearly erroneous decision that a man did not rape his wife because under Sharia law she could not refuse him.

Source: Indian Express as first seen on Reddit.

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