ABSTRACT
A simile is sometimes struck between the condition of servility and the condition of marriage in Islam. A comparison is drawn between the dominion imposed by the husband through which his wife is caused to surrender her sexual self, and the sovereignty established by the master whereby the slave is compelled to alienate his right to dispose. Thus wives and slaves are cast into a weakened state — a state whose measure of capacity is curtailed by the very nature of their lot. 1 The comparison is further expressed as each arrangement is likened to a sale wherein the fundamental conditions of a transaction are comprised. Thus again, it is said that in the market the master buys his slave, whereas in marriage, the husband purchases his wife's productive part. For the security of the dower, the woman's sexual self is enslaved — for the protection of his lord, the slave's physical person is secured. 2
