Allah definitely has directives He wants obeyed regarding how spouses should behave toward each other. Most famously, he declared that (Quran 4:34) "Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband's] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance - advise them, forsake them in bed, and strike them..." [More on "strike them" in posts below]
Now if the goal is marital happiness, our first debate question is "Does it truly make sense to make one spouse needing to be obedient, that is, in some sense, needing to be a slave of the other?"
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Allah would also declare:
"Your women are your fields, so go into your fields whichever way you like . . . ." (Quran 2:223)
Would marital harmony have been advanced to a greater degree if Allah had instead declared:
"Your women are your friends, so go into your friends whichever way they like!"
or, talking not to just one sex, but instead to both:
"A wife and a husband should be physically intimate in ways that each other enjoys."
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Evidently, Allah and his angels are particularly upset when a wife refuses to have sex with her husband. If this is the case, this verse indicates that the wife is wrong and that the husband is right:
"Narrated by Abu Huraira
Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "If a husband calls his wife to his bed (i.e. to have sex) and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the Angels will curse her till morning." Our Debate Questions: If the wife does not feel like sex, does she deserve to be cursed by angels? Why do the Islamic hadiths not likewise indicate that angels curse husbands who avoid wives seeking sex? Is Islam a religion designed to primarily benefit men?
What is particularly telling here is that the angels who curse the reluctant wives are male angels. Allah will not have female angels; in Quran 53:27 it is written "Lo! it is those who disbelieve in the Hereafter who name the angels with the names of females."
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Turning our attention to inheritance, a number of Islamic Inheritance calculators all indicate that if an only child unfortunately dies leaving only his 2 parents as heirs, the father shall inherit twice the amount of the mother.
Below are the results of one online Islamic Inheritance Calculator (other calculators yield the same result):
Now if the goal is marital happiness, our first debate question is "Does it truly make sense to make one spouse needing to be obedient, that is, in some sense, needing to be a slave of the other?"
****************************************************************************************************************************
Allah would also declare:
"Your women are your fields, so go into your fields whichever way you like . . . ." (Quran 2:223)
Would marital harmony have been advanced to a greater degree if Allah had instead declared:
"Your women are your friends, so go into your friends whichever way they like!"
or, talking not to just one sex, but instead to both:
"A wife and a husband should be physically intimate in ways that each other enjoys."
****************************************************************************************************************************
Evidently, Allah and his angels are particularly upset when a wife refuses to have sex with her husband. If this is the case, this verse indicates that the wife is wrong and that the husband is right:
"Narrated by Abu Huraira
Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "If a husband calls his wife to his bed (i.e. to have sex) and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the Angels will curse her till morning." Our Debate Questions: If the wife does not feel like sex, does she deserve to be cursed by angels? Why do the Islamic hadiths not likewise indicate that angels curse husbands who avoid wives seeking sex? Is Islam a religion designed to primarily benefit men?
What is particularly telling here is that the angels who curse the reluctant wives are male angels. Allah will not have female angels; in Quran 53:27 it is written "Lo! it is those who disbelieve in the Hereafter who name the angels with the names of females."
******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Turning our attention to inheritance, a number of Islamic Inheritance calculators all indicate that if an only child unfortunately dies leaving only his 2 parents as heirs, the father shall inherit twice the amount of the mother.
Below are the results of one online Islamic Inheritance Calculator (other calculators yield the same result):
Does this arrangement seem to you to be unfair to the mother, she receiving less than half of the inheritance of her husband?