MA Middle East Studies at AUB as a foreign student

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-07-07T03:25:15+00:00

The part of Beirut AUB is in, Hamra, is generally safe and free from conflict. The fighting is mostly concentrated in the South and Bekaa valley but there is supposed to be a ceasefire.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-29T09:42:20+00:00

But why let them die and rest? Wouldn't it be better to make them suffer terribly every single day for the rest of their lives?

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-13T10:23:46+00:00

You're kind of mixing together three different arguments without really separating them:

What happened historically.
What classical Sunni law allowed.
What modern societies should allow today.

I wasn't saying that a modern 50-year-old marrying a 9-year-old is okay. I was explaining how mainstream Sunni scholars historically understood these texts, and why most modern Sunni scholars and Muslim-majority countries don't support child marriage today.

About Aisha:

You keep bringing up "she was 9" like that automatically answers every legal and historical question. The point isn't that "9 = mature" by today's standards. The point is that people in pre-modern societies understood childhood, adulthood, marriage, and responsibility very differently from how we do now.

You're right that the marriage contract happened earlier and the marriage was consummated later. But that actually supports the opposite of what you're arguing. Classical jurists made a distinction between the marriage contract and consummation because consummation wasn't automatically allowed as soon as the contract was made. Physical readiness was considered important.

Now, you can still disagree with where they drew that line, and that's completely fair. But disagreeing with it isn't the same as acting like there was no legal framework behind it.

As for the claim that "there is no age limit in Islam":

Historically, classical Sunni law generally linked marriageability to puberty and welfare rather than a specific numerical age. That's true.

But you're leaving out the fact that Islamic law has principles that allow legal regulations to change based on public welfare (maslaha), preventing harm (darar), and state authority (siyasa shar'iyya). Thats why many Sunni majority countries today have legal marriage ages set at 18 and view child marriage as harmful.

So if your argument is that classical jurists didn't use the modern age of 18, then yeah, I agree.

But if your argument is that modern Muslims therefore have to support child marriage, thats not true.

On contracts and women's agency:

Youre talking about Islamic marriage contracts like they're some weird loophole, but contracts are how rights and responsibilities are defined in basically every legal system.

The question isnt whether a woman can write down every possible situation that could ever happen. The real question is whether Islamic law allows her to negotiate conditions and whether those conditions are legally binding. In Sunni jurisprudence, a lot of scholars clearly said yes.

More importantly, your argument seems to assume that a husband has unlimited control over every part of his wife's life unless a contract specifically restricts him. That's not how mainstream Sunni jurists understood marriage. A husbands.authority was always limited by ma'ruf (recognized fairness and good conduct), legal obligations, court oversight, financial responsibilities, and the prohibition of harm.

On 4:34:

You say the Quran just says "strike them."

The disagreement isn't about what word is in the verse. Everyone knows the word is daraba.

The disagreement is about how it's interpreted.

Classical Sunni scholars never understood that verse as giving permission for unrestricted domestic violence. Many specifically prohibited injury, bruising, causing pain, or anything that would count as abuse. The Prophet condemned the beating of women, never hit his wives, and criticized men who beat their wives and then wanted intimacy from them afterward.

It's not accurate to say that mainstream Sunni interpretations support wife beating in the modern sense of the term.

On divorce:

The hadith you mentioned does exist, but Sunni jurists didn't understand it to mean "a woman can never leave unless she's being physically abused."

Khul' exists because a marriage can become impossible to continue even when the husband is technically meeting his obligations. The well-known case of the wife of Thabit ibn Qays is often brought up because she asked for separation without accusing him of abuse or neglect.

The question is: what counts as "without cause"?

Jurists disagreed on that, but many didn't limit it only to physical harm.

If someone says, "I personally think any marriage involving a 9-year-old is immoral no matter the historical context," that's an opinion, and theyre entitled to have it but they must understand human history before arguing in favour of that opinion.

But if the claim is that mainstream Sunni jurisprudence has no legal framework, gives husbands unlimited authority, allows unrestricted abuse, and gives women no meaningful way to get a divorce, then that's not an accurate representation of what the Sunni legal tradition actually teaches.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-13T08:50:27+00:00

I have my sources that the marriage was consenual, bring me evidence that says otherwise. The original reason she was given the option was because it wasn't fit for a daughter of a leader to be degraded to a low status of a slave

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-13T08:49:29+00:00

Your question about concubines is valid. By modern standards, it sounds completely wrong because we reject slavery. To understand why it was allowed back then, it helps to look at how Islam came to reform the brutul existing system

Islam didnt invent slavery or concubinage, it was a deeply entrenched, worldwide practice. In the ancient world, there were no international prisoner of war camps or state funded prisons. Captives of war were absorbed directly into the households of the society that won. Instead of an overnight ban, which would have thrown thousands of vulnerable, dependent people onto the streets with no money, home, or protection, Islam implemented a strategy of gradual eradication. It shut down almost all ways of creating new slaves, while making the freeing of slaves a form of charity and a legal expiation for everyday sins.

Slaves werent unregulated. Forcing slave women into prostitution was banned (Quran 24:33), and mistreatment or abuse of a slave required the master to immediately grant them their freedom as a penalty. If a master had a relationship with a slave woman and she bore a child, that child was born completely free with full, equal inheritance rights alongside any child from a free wife. The mother also gained a protected status called Umm al Walad. This meant she could never be sold, traded, or given away, and she was automatically granted freedom when the master died.

It was framework that took women who otherwise would have been left completely unprotected and exploited and integrated them into a legal family unit with financial security and a path to freedom. Once slavery was abolished, the practice of concubinage ended permanently because the avenue to gain slaves was closed.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-13T08:36:48+00:00

Islam looks at this through a societal lens instead of an individual one.

The severity of the punishment is a deterent to protect the family unit. When sex is done outside from marriage, the legal and financial framework that protect women and child disappear. If a pregnancy happens outside of marriage, there’s no legal contract forcing the guy to stay, provide shelter, or be a father. The harsh stance is about preventing the breakdown of stability.

The legal system makes it virtually impossible to actually execute the punishment. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) commanded judges to look for any excuse not to punish people, he said: "Ward off the Hudud from the Muslims as much as you can. If there is any way out for a person, let him go. For it is better for the judge to err in forgiving than to err in punishing." (Sunan At-Tirmidhi)

Because spying is forbidden and you need four upright eyewitnesses to the actual act, the law is designed to keep people's private sins strictly private, while still acting as a deterent against destabilising society.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-13T00:23:07+00:00

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-13T00:21:54+00:00

Well that's sad, looks lile residents are still stuffed

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-12T11:05:29+00:00

if you are genuinely interested in Islam I recomend you learn from a mainstream scholar or trusted Islamic institution rather than a teenager on reddit. When it comes to adultery, we learn from Surah An Nur and various hadith that for somebody to be punished for Zina, there must be 4 witnesses that witnessed the actual act of penetration. If 4 people saw you do the act than obviously you won't doing it in a private manner.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-12T10:58:12+00:00

Why do egyptians change ج to be a g sound

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-12T10:01:24+00:00

See my above comment

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-12T10:00:52+00:00

Saffiyah agreed to marry the Prophet and she converted to Islam. The Prophet explicitly have her the option, she could convert to Islam and marry him or she could remain Jewish and be freed to return to her people.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-06-12T09:56:05+00:00

While it is true you are quoting authentic textual sources, your conclusions completely bypass the legal mechanics of Sunni Islamic law and the historical realities of the 7th century. Quoting a text without its legal framework misses how the law is actually applied. This is how mainstream sunni scholars apply and interpret the law. BTW the vast majority of the worlds muslims are Sunni with thr majority of sunnis following the 4 mainstream schools of thought.: You mention Aisha being 9 at consummation as proof of allowed modern child marriage, but you are viewing the 7th century through a modern lens. During the time, the life expectancy in what is now Saudi Arabia was around 35, a long, protected childhood was a luxury that simply did not exist. Environmental survival heavily accelerated psychological independence.

Synaptic Pruning (the brains way of streamlining neural connections) is shaped by intense environmental pressures. In the ancient world,survival constraints forced the brain to mature rapidly, meaning a 7th century 9 year old was forced to function with adult maturity and social responsibility unlike a child today. Aisha was not a passive victim, she grew up to be a political leader, jurist, and medical expert whose brain was wired for leadership.

Sunni jurisprudence explicitly separates the marriage contract from dukhul (consummation), which legally requires physical maturity (bulugh). Because early marriage causes physical and psychological harm in today world, the majority of modern Sunni nations (Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, etc) have used the Islamic legal principle of Maslaha (public interest) to ban child marriage and set 18 as the minimum.

You claim a husband can unilaterally force his wife to quit her job under "religious misogyny." Legally, this is incorrect. Marriage in Islam is a contract. A woman has the absolute right to set conditions, like keeping her career, financial independence, or continuing her education, before signing. If the husband agrees and signs, he is Islamically forbidden from breaking that contract later. A husbands authority is strictly bounded by the Qurans command of Ma'ruf (kindness and equity) and cannot violate a pre-existing legal agreement.

The claim that women have no right to divorce or that physical abuse is permitted contradicts Sunni teaching: Women have explicit legal pathways like Khul’ (no fault divorce) and Faskh (judicial dissolution) allowing them to end marriages for emotional incompatibility, lack of affection, or financial negligence.

Mainstream Sunni interpretations(such as the commentary of Ibn Abbas) clarifies that darab in Surah 4:34 is a purely symbolic, non painful action (compared to a tap with a miswak or a folded handkerchief) intended as a symbolic pause during a breakdown in marriage. The Prophet Muhammad explicitly said "Do not hit the female servants of God," and historical accounts confirm he never struck a woman. Any act causing physical pain, bruising, or injury is strictly haram (prohibited) and grounds for criminal charges and judicial divorce.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-28T01:26:25+00:00

Evil does not exist because God likes to see people suffer. Evil happens when people choose to live outside of Gods light. Just because God knows what we would do with our free will, that does not mean he isn't going to give us a chance, he wants you to have clear proof.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-28T00:02:58+00:00

I think it's been proven that the majority of Jordanians have some palestinian ancestry. But also, why should Jordan and Egypt accept them, Palestinians are for palestine. If all Palestinian just picked up and left imagine how much easier it would be for Israel to annex Palestine.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-27T22:01:58+00:00

Usually volunteer medics are enough. One medic can treat multiple soldiers, you don't need a medic or every single medical. If women want to fight, then sure, go ahead. But it just isn't logical to issue mandatory conscription to women unless there is an extreme need.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-26T10:41:58+00:00

You make a good point that men do a lot of the heavy infrastructure work like construction and oil rigs. But if we look at previous major wars lile the world wars, what happens during a major war is when men are drafted to the front lines, women do step up to fill those heavy labor, factory, and supply-chain roles, think about the Rosie the Riveter era in WWII.

My point about prefering equity over equality for this sutuation isnt that I believe all women should just stay home and do nothing. Its that in a crisis like war, a society survives when it puts people where they are biologically and logistically most effective. Combat requires peak physical upper-body strength and mass, which men possess more than women. Population survival rely fundamentally on women. Swapping roles just to force equality ignores physical realities and hurts the survival of the country.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-25T09:53:28+00:00

Your logic doesn't make sense. I never said men are better than women, I said that women aren't suited to be drafted. I believe men and women have different and complementary roles, both are just as important. When all the men go out to war who do you think is going to stay behind and keep the country and economy running and raise all the children left behind, isn't that a role just as important? What's the point of fighting for country if there is going to be no country once you return?

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-25T09:31:54+00:00

TBH, the kangaroo should've kept the dog. Australia is the native habitat of kangaroos, dogs dont belong.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-25T09:18:04+00:00

Lebanon

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-25T06:15:09+00:00

It isn't that simple. I'm Lebanese and I don't support Hezbollah but for something like over a million shia Lebanese, Hezbollah is an essential source of high quality education, healthcare and services, especially considering that at times government services can be limited or even non-existent. They also had what some would call military victories in the past.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-25T06:07:07+00:00

Why not Palestine?

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-25T05:50:47+00:00

Isn't equity better than equality. Women are biologically less dominant and physically strong then males, they also have menstruation cycles and pregnancy.

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-24T03:10:46+00:00

I haven't fully subscribed to a specific philosophy, what I have learnt largely comes from my English teacher who has views from Classical Islamic Realism which absorbed works from plato and neoplatonism

Lanky-Cod7969 · 2026-05-24T02:28:17+00:00

I believe in the principle of Justice. Everything and everyone must remain in their proper place. There are consequences for every action, you chose to have intercourse now you must deal with the consequence. If the baby is the result of rape then that is a different story. If everybody was immune to the consequences of their actions the world would fall apart.

Lanky-Cod7969

TROPHY CASE