Islamic Marriage and Legalized Prostitution

An in-depth look into the treatment of women in Islam.
FROM ISLAM-WATCH.ORG:

Islamic Marriage and Legalized Prostitution

by Sujit Das
20 Feb, 2008

The significance of married life is great. Fortunate indeed is that couple who starts married life with right understanding of its importance and greatness. Marriage is a sacred spiritual partnership between two souls who have come upon this earth to evolve an ideal life of nobility, virtue and Dharma (social custom in Hinduism) and attain their goal of divine perfection through such ideal life. Therefore, the home of a married couple is a sanctified centre of spiritual life. The home is their place of worship, prayer and daily meditation. It is truly said that the marriages are made in heaven. Sex is not everything in a marriage.

The home is a sacred arena for the attainment of self-conquest and self-mastery which is more thrilling than conquering a monarchy. Blessed are those couples who lead this divine life, where truth, purity and universal love, mutual trust and compassion constitute the basic foundation of such divine life. Such a house is the abode of God. People may visit such a sacred place for pilgrimage.
In Hinduism, a wedding ceremony at its core is essentially a Vedic yajña (a fire sacrifice), in which the Arian deities are invoked in the ancient Indo-Aryan style. Agni, the fire-deity (or the sacred fire) is the primary witness of a Hindu marriage. By law and tradition, no Hindu marriage is deemed complete unless in the presence of this sacred fire, seven encirclements have been made around it by the bride and the groom together. Divorce is rare amongst Hindus.
In Christianity, the views of marriage historically have regarded marriage as ordained by God for the lifelong union of a man and a woman. The fundamental principal was first articulated Biblically in Genesis 2:24 (Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh). Afterwards, Jesus set forth his basic position on marriage by bringing together two important passages from Genesis (1:27; 2:7-- 25). He pointed to the completion of the creation – “male and female he created them”. Then Jesus described marriage as a sacred relationship, a union, so intimate and real that “the two became one flesh”. As persons, husband and wife are of equal value. In truth, they are one.
Then what about Islam and Muslims?
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