Islam brought about a revolution in human relations placing
master and slave, man and woman, on a footing of equality before
God. In Arabia, as in most other countries, man had been
accustomed to look on women just for the gratification of his lust.
Marriage was a device to prevent men from quarrelling for the
possession of desirable women. The Qur'an raised the status of
women in society and made them equal partners of men in the
enterprise of living.
IV. Sex and SocietyThe sex urge is part of the instinctual equipment of man and
woman. The continuity of the race is ensured by the individual's
desire to engage in procreative activity. It is the means by which the
torch of life is carried forward. In the classical classification of
instincts on the basis of the ends they subserve, the sex urge belongs
to the class of instincts of race preservation.
It is now generally admitted that the sex motive is a powerful
determinant of human behaviour. For a long time, however, under
the influence of puritanism and rationalism, the sex life of man was
not considered worthy of serious study. In good society, the subject
was scrupulously eschewed. At the beginning of the twentieth
century, however, a reaction set in and the fashion now is to
exaggerate its importance in human life. Some psychologists, led by
Freud, regard it as basic in "human nature" and ubiquitous in human
life. The psychoanalyst digs up the sex motive in such simple
activities as eating and playing. He tries to lift the veil from sex and
discovers it in unexpected places. The mathematician pondering
over lines and curves and the mystic absorbed in meditation may
both be satisfying the same urge, though in different ways. Libidinal
energy, repressed and diverted into socially approved channels,
creates culture and civilisation.
The Western people, it would seem, have swung from the
extreme of cold indifference to sex to the opposite extreme of
intense preoccupation with it. The Qur'an steers a middle course. It
assigns to sex its rightful place in life but no more. In this attitude it is
supported by science. Experimental studies of animal behaviour
show that the sex drive, though a strong one, is by no means the
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