Kecia Ali is Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University. She is a world authority on Islamic jurisprudence, and author of Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith and Jurisprudence.

Introduction

1 Marriage, Money, and Sex

"And according to what they spend from their wealth ... "

Sex

Intermarriage

Conclusion

Coda 1

2 Lesser Evils: Divorce in Islamic Ethics

Untying the knot

Extreme circumstances

Prospects for reform

Conclusion

Coda 2

3 "What your right hands possess": Slave Concubinage in Muslim Texts and Discourses

Islam and slavery: overview of sources and history

Women, war captives, and withdrawal

Conclusion

Coda 3

4 Prohibited Acts and Forbidden Partners: Illicit Sex in Islamic Jurisprudence

Protecting chastity: the classical texts

Paternity, legal fictions, and non-marital sex in contemporary Muslim thought

Conclusion

Coda 4

5 Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Same-Sex Intimacy in Muslim Thought

History

Don’t ask, don’t tell

Same-sex marriage

Conclusion

Coda 5

6 "Reduce but do not destroy": Female "Circumcision" in Islamic Sources

Islamic or un-Islamic?

"Reduce but do not destroy"

Conclusion

Coda 6

7 "If you have touched women": Female Bodies and Male Agency in the Qur’an

To whom am I speaking?

A difficult verse

Garments for one another

Conclusion

Coda 7

8 The Prophet Muhammad, his Beloved Aishah, and Modern Muslim Sensibilities

Apologetics and polemics

Searching for solace

Conclusion

Coda 8

9 Toward an Islamic Ethics of Sex

Afterword to the 2016 edition

Notes

Bibliography

Index