and have claimed that a prostitute is among the “chaste women.” Yet those verses constitute evidence against them, for chastity is the very least that this description entails. If free status is also stipulated, that further completes chastity and virtue. If someone prohibits marriage to a slave woman lest his child be born enslaved, how can he permit marriage to a prostitute who attributes to him a child who is not his? How much graver is the corruption of his marriage bed than the enslavement of his child!

The same applies to those who claim that “marriage” here means sexual intercourse, so that the meaning is that a man who commits unlawful sexual intercourse has intercourse only with a woman who does likewise or with a polytheist, and that a woman who commits unlawful sexual intercourse has intercourse only with a man who does likewise or with a polytheist. This is an even stronger argument against them: whoever has intercourse with such a woman or a polytheist woman under a marriage contract is himself guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse. The same applies to a woman with whom a man guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse has intercourse. For a person is condemned for his or her own act of unlawful sexual intercourse. Thus, even if he forces himself upon her, or she inserts his penis into herself while he is asleep, punishment falls upon the perpetrator alone, not the other party. This issue is discussed at length in the books of jurisprudence.

The point here is His statement:

“A man who commits unlawful sexual intercourse marries none but a woman who commits unlawful sexual intercourse or a polytheist.”

This indicates that a man who commits unlawful sexual intercourse marries only a woman who commits unlawful sexual intercourse or a polytheist, and that this is forbidden to believers. This is not merely because he is immoral, but specifically because he commits unlawful sexual intercourse. Likewise, in the woman’s case, it is not merely because of her immorality, but specifically because of her unlawful sexual intercourse. The evidence is that He regards a woman as guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse if she marries a man guilty of it, just as He regards a husband as guilty of it if he marries a woman guilty of it. This applies when both are Muslims who believe unlawful sexual intercourse to be forbidden. If they are both polytheists, that should be recognized.

The import is that a man who commits unlawful sexual intercourse may not be married until he repents, by bringing himself into conformity with His stipulation of chastity. And if a woman is