Definition of rape - is marital rape a criminal offense in sharia
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Marital rape consists of raping your spouse, i.e. having intercourse with your spouse despite a lack of consent. In modern law, marital rape is on par with extramarital rape in terms of legal consequences: the rapist will be punished, whether the victim was his spouse or not.
This is not clear to me in sharia if the husband rapes the wife. One of her major duties according to the marital contract is sexual availability, and refusing to oblige is not only considered a major sin, it has the legal implication of [losing her right to maintenance by her husband](https://islam.stackexchange.com/a/38759/17702) (the linked answer talks about leaving the house without permission, but on a fortiori grounds, this also holds about her refusing intercourse; this result is also explicitly mentioned in the section of which excerpts are cited in the linked answer).
I can't find a definition of rape in fiqh sources, and the only mention of a punishment for rape in Reliance of the Traveler I can find is in o7.3 in the context of how far self-defense can go (not in the context of legal punishments):
> As for when an aggressor is raping someone whom it is unlawful for him
> to have sexual intercourse with, it is permissible to kill him
> forthwith.
Clearly this says nothing about marital rape since it is lawful for the husband to have sex with his wife. The [Hidayah](https://archive.org/stream/Hedaya_201703/Hedaya#page/n395/mode/2up/search/rape) only mentions marital rape in a footnote to a paragraph about maintenance of the wife; it says nothing about any consequences for the husband. [This answer](https://islam.stackexchange.com/a/27526/17702) to a related question also says nothing about a legal punishment for the husband, or even any negative legal effects like owing her money.
Thus my questions:
- Which definitions of rape exist in fiqh? In particular, what is the relevance of consent?
- Are there any criminal law consequences for a husband raping his wife that don't also exist for a husband causing bodily harm to his wife? (To explain the difference: is a husband who rapes his wife by beating her with an iron rod punished differently from a husband who beats his wife with an iron rod without also raping her?)
Asked by G. Bach
(2099 rep)
Mar 31, 2017, 03:55 PM
Last activity: Jan 9, 2023, 10:29 AM
Last activity: Jan 9, 2023, 10:29 AM