the word is chastity. Chastity, however, was customary among women who were not slaves. Indeed, al-Bukhārī related in his Sahīh that Abū Rajā al-ʿUtāridī saw, during the pre-Islamic period, a male monkey committing fornication with a female. The other monkeys gathered against it and stoned it.

One of the trustworthy elders told me that he had seen a bird that had laid eggs in a congregational mosque. Some people took an egg away and brought in eggs of another species of bird. When the eggs hatched, the chicks were of a different species. The male began seeking out birds of its own kind until a number of them had gathered. They kept attacking the female until they killed her. Such behaviour is well known among animals.

People everywhere agree in regarding sexual immoralities as reprehensible and abhorrent. Those people acknowledged the Creator despite their polytheism. This is why Joseph said to them:

“O my two companions in prison, are separate lords better, or Allah, the One, the All-Subduing?

“You worship besides Him nothing but names that you and your forefathers have devised, for which Allah has sent down no authority. Judgment belongs to Allah alone. He has commanded that you worship none but Him. That is the upright religion, but most people do not know.”

“The Twelfth Argument”

It may be said: Allah, glorified and exalted be He, has never mentioned a sin committed by any prophet without also mentioning his repentance from it. Hence, people have held two views concerning the prophets’ protection from sin: either they hold that prophets are protected from committing sins, or