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The school of Medina was known in the early periods as espousing peculiar opinions that were criticized by the jurists of the school of Iraq and others.[1117] A case in point was an unusual opinion on sexual behavior that affirmed the availability of the wife's entire body for the husband's pleasure,[1118] allowing abnormal sexual relations between husband and wife.[1119] Such relations were strictly forbidden by other schools and jurists.
Nafi' attributed a view in favor of this position to 'Abd Allah b. 'Umar, a claim that was denied by 'Abd Allah's son, Salim, and others.[1120] There were others, too, who were quoted as endorsing it.[1121] Early Malikis in the western part of the Muslim world attributed the same opinion to Malik,[1122] although other Malikis denied the attribution.[1123] There are some fairly detailed discussions of the topic in the law books of the Malikis[1124] and others.[1125]
Numerous reports from Ja'far al-Sadiq strongly condemn such sexual practice.[1126] As is usual in this genre, there are also reports that ascribe to him the opposite position, known to have been supported by other jurists of Medina at the time. But this is a clear misattribution.[1127] Besides, a statement from the Imam,[1128] quoted earlier in this chapter, addressed situations involving contradictory reports and advised his followers to follow the report that contradicted the dominant opinion of the community—in this case, the Medinan view that such behavior was permissible.
In the time of Muhammad al-Baqir, this type of sexual behavior even led to a death, and the case was brought to his attention.[1129] It is difficult to imagine that jurists who came to know of such fatalities could have deemed the acts that caused it legally and ethically acceptable.[1130]
There was also a peculiar opinion among the jurists of Mecca at the time that allowed a master to offer his or her female slave to someone else for the purpose of sexual relations between the latter and the slave, such as a mother offering her female slave to her son when he reached puberty, a phenomenon that seems to have been not uncommon. This opinion was supported by a number of eminent students of Ibn 'Abbas such as 'Ata', Tus, Jabir b.
Zayd, and their students.[1131] Once again, some transmitters attributed statements in favor of the practice to Ja'far alSdiq, whose legal positions in numerous other cases were similar to those of Ibn 'Abbas.[1132] In this specific case, however, there is no evidence to suggest that Ibn 'Abbas in fact supported the opinion as such.[1133] Even if Ibn 'Abbas did, Ja'fari law does not systematically follow his views; numerous opinions quoted from him in early sources do not agree with the positions of Ja'fari law.[1134] [1135] Zaydi and Ismal[1136] Shia, too, were against the practice, unless the master gave the slave as a gift (hiba), and thus transferred the ownership of the slave to the recipient. This also might have been how Hasan al-Basri (d. 110) understood the concept of offering one's female slave to someone else, as he held that the recipient would then have the option of manumitting the slave if he so wished.[1137]This is not the right place to discuss the question of slavery and how it was introduced into Islam. However, since it is related to the matter at hand, I briefly mention that early in Islamic history, there were scholars and groups who considered slavery unlawful and, even more emphatically, deemed a master's sexual relations with his female slave to be unlawful. The present author has discussed these viewpoints in more detail elsewhere.[1138] [1139] VI.
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