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Zina

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Logo of zina haram.

Zināʾ (زِنَاء) or zina (زِنًى or زِنًا) is an Islamic law concerning unlawful sexual relations between male and female. Historically, sexual relations with concubines, who are known as “those whom your right hands possess” in the Qur'an, was permissible in Islam.[1]

However, most[2] modern Muslims believe that Islam no longer permits concubinage and that sexual relations are religiously permissible only within marriage. In modern times, the term zina often refers to sexual relations between males and females who are not married to one another through a nikah,[3] and includes extramarital sex, premarital sex,[4] adultery (sex outside the marriage),[5] fornication[6] , incest (sexual relationship between two family members)[7] , bestiality[8] and rape[9]

In the four schools of Sunni fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), and the two schools of Shi'a fiqh, the term zināʾ is a sin of sexual intercourse that is not allowed by Sharia (Islamic law) and classed as a hudud crime (class of Islamic punishments that are fixed for certain crimes that are considered to be "claims of God").[10] To prove an act of zina, a qadi (religious judge) in a sharia court relies on an unmarried woman's pregnancy, the confession in the name of Allah, or four witnesses to the actual act of penetration. The last two types of prosecutions are uncommon. Most cases of zina in the history of Islam have been pregnant unmarried women.[11][12] In some schools of Islamic law, a pregnant woman accused of zina who denies sex was consensual must prove she was raped with four eye-witnesses testifying before the court. This has led to many cases where rape victims have been punished for zina.[13][14] Pressing charges of zina without required eyewitnesses is considered slander (Qadhf, القذف) in Islam, itself a hudud crime.[15][16] The punishment for zina is stoning the accused to death.[17][18][19][20][21][22]

The above sense of zina is not to be confused with the woman's name Zina or Zeina (زينة). The name has a different linguistic root (Greek xen-). It also has a different meaning ("guest, stranger"), is pronounced differently (either Zīnah or Zaynah), and is usually spelled differently.[23]

References

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ Cortese 2013.
  2. ↑ Ali 2006, p. 52: "the vast majority of Muslims do not consider slavery, especially slave concubinage, to be acceptable practices for the modern world"
  3. ↑ R. Peters, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman et al., Brill, ISBN 978-9004161214, see article on Zinā
  4. ↑ Sakah Saidu Mahmud (2013), Sharia or Shura: Contending Approaches to Muslim Politics in Nigeria and Senegal, Lexington, ISBN 978-0739175644, Chapter 3
  5. ↑ Ursula Smartt, Honour Killings Archived 2020-11-26 at the Wayback Machine Justice of the Peace, Vol. 170, January 2006, pp. 4-6
  6. ↑ Z. Mir-Hosseini (2011), Criminalizing sexuality: zina laws as violence against women in Muslim contexts, Int'l Journal on Human Rights, 15, 7-16
  7. ↑ "Incest is a worse and more serious sin - Islam Question & Answer". Islam-QA. Retrieved 2026-04-01.
  8. ↑ "Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1455 - The Book on Legal Punishments (Al-Hudud) - كتاب الحدود عن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)". sunnah.com. Retrieved 2026-04-01.
  9. ↑ admin@analyze_qurann786 (2024-08-21). "Punishment for Rape In Islam & What Quran says about Rape?". Analyze Quran. Retrieved 2026-04-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ Julie Chadbourne (1999), Never wear your shoes after midnight: Legal trends under the Pakistan Zina Ordinance, Wisconsin International Law Journal, Vol. 17, pp. 179-234
  11. ↑ Kecia Ali (2006), Sexual Ethics and Islam, ISBN 978-1851684564, Chapter 4
  12. ↑ M. Tamadonfar (2001), Islam, law, and political control in contemporary Iran, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(2): 205-220
  13. ↑ A. Quraishi (1999), Her honour: an Islamic critique of the rape provisions in Pakistan's ordinance on zina, Islamic studies, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 403-431
  14. ↑ Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), pp. 176-183
  15. ↑ Peters, Rudolph (2006). Crime and Punishment in Islamic Law: : Theory and Practice from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0521796705.
  16. ↑ DeLong-Bas, Wahhabi Islam, 2004: 89-90
  17. ↑ Muhsan The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (2012)
  18. ↑ Ismail Poonwala (2007), The Pillars of Islam: Laws pertaining to human intercourse, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195689075, pp. 448-457
  19. ↑ Al Muwatta 41 1.8
  20. ↑ "Rape in Islamic law: Establishing the crime and upholding the rights of the innocent". Al Hakam. 23 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  21. ↑ Peters, R. (2012). "Zinā or Zināʾ". In P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill.
  22. ↑ Dr Azman Mohd Noor, Punishment for rape in Islamic Law, Malayan Law Journal Articles [2009] 5 MLJ cxiv
  23. ↑ "Zina meaning and name origin". thinkbabynames.com. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
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