Does Islam require 4 witnesses for rape victims?
Does Islam really require four witness for rape victims? An ignorant ignoramous claimed that in my blog while commenting on an unrelated issue. We aim to deal with this issue once and for all by breaking it down into several points so as to enable easy understanding, insha’allah.
1. The claim that rape victims require four witnesses to seek justice for their case is untrue and a false lie propagated by those who either do not have any knowledge in Islamic law or want to “prove” a so-called weakness in the hadd laws. Circumstantial evidence is sufficient and the judge can invoke his judgement based upon takzir (his own discretion).
2. If a person makes an allegation of adultery against another person (male or female), only then he or she must produce four witnesses to support such an allegation; otherwise, he or she is guilty of slandering, which is a grave offence in Islam.
3. To insist that the raped victim must provide witnesses is akin to inflicting further pain on her. If anyone refutes her claim of innocence, the onus is on him to provide evidence, and she may simply deny the claim by making a solemn oath, thus clearing herself in public. This is based on what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The onus to provide evidence falls on the one who makes a claim, and the one who denies (the same) can absolve himself or herself by making a solemn oath to the contrary.â€
4. Rape is considered as “hiraba” (highway robbery or terrorism or promoting terror) and hence rapists are to be punished according to the “hirabah” laws, as highlighted in the Qur’an.
We hope that the above explanations made it clear that rape victims are not required to “bring four witnesses” as alleged. And only God knows best!
Related link: Are Raped Women Asked to Bring Four Witnesses?
While we’re on the subject, I’ll like to know… Is it permissible in Islam to rape women who go around wearing tight or revealing clothings?
A lot of Islamic officials have apparently answered yes to this sighting the fact that such women deserve to be raped.
[MENJ: The answer is NO.]
Comment by Jon — June 4, 2006 @ 11:29 pm
[…] December 5, 2006 The gall of some people with Islamophobic tendencies in attacking Islam, mocking its sacred laws and of course, making imbecile comments such as the following: Perhaps they have realised how senseless it is to only believe the victim when 4 people has witnessed the crime, so they are now finding a way to justify it after so many years. You see, the problem with these people is that they have such miniscule, pea-sized brains for size that they are unable to properly think for themselves and actually do some research in the matter. Its not that this issue was not discussed before. I have already dealt with this little polemic in a post written sometime in 2005. That it had to appear again after a year just goes to show how desperate these people are to justify their bias and hatred against Islam. […]
Pingback by Here we go again…RAPE in Islam » Critical Thoughts — December 5, 2006 @ 7:09 pm