BIRTH OUT OF WEDLOCK

BIRTH OUT OF WEDLOCK 

Recently, government had spent a large amount of budget on rehabilitation centres and baby hatch regarding the phenomenon of birth out of wedlock. As the statistic of dumped babies and illegitimate pregnant mothers’ increases, the number of rehabilitation centres and baby hatch also increases. However, this method is only to cure this alarming issue in our country and not to overcome it. It is definitely better to prevent than to cure this issue. The explosion in the number of birth out of wedlock had poked everyone’s attention. The parliament had also popped out the issue regarding this social problem occurring in our country. It is obviously that birth out of wedlock; the impact of adultery had brought enormous effect to the development of our country and had also the country’s image. As been stated by Allah in the holy Quran, “nor come nigh to adultery: for it is a shameful (deed) and an evil, opening the road to other evil” (17:32). As an example, when a woman commits adultery, and if Allah wills the foetus to live in her uterus, then she do not want the baby and aborted the baby, then she will commit another sin, which is murder. Thus, Allah guidelines clearly show us the cause and the impacts of adultery. The budget from the government which is about millions ringgit for building those shelters would be beneficially applied to helps the needy and poor, improving health and academics sectors and also for the development of the country. Hence, the government should come out with other method of prevention rather than spending lots of money on this issue.

             Apart from that, the authorities should tighten the law regarding adultery. Today, the existing law is seems to be lenient to the adulterers. This is clearly shown as the statistics of illegitimate mothers continue to grow tremendously lately. Due to existing law, those who are guilty of committing adultery (especially to Muslim) will be sentence of six strokes,[1] or two years of prison or to be fine not more than RM5000 or with both[2]. When they manage to pay the fine or after having lenient punishments, some of them tend to repeat their mistakes.[3] These punishments should be taken seriously by the authorities in order to prevent people committing adultery. For instance, as a step of prevention, those who caught having seclusion should be married and fine. If these guilty are left to be free after lenient punishment, it is worried that some of them will repeat their mistakes or even worse, committing adultery. Hence, the authorities with the power to rule the country and to crude the law should put greater attention to this problem. The most important part is to tighten the law regarding adultery.

             On top of that, it is rational for Malaysia’s legislation to practice Hudud’s Law regarding adultery although Malaysia is not an Islamic country. Hudud’s Law in Syara’ refer to punishment stated by Allah and made compulsory to be done because of Allah. This law will lead in preserving the tranquility and peace of a country. The law of Hudud in Islamic crime Law can be classified into few classes which are adultery, theft, qadhf, drinking, apostate, protesting the Islamic leader who is legally chosen by the country and robbery. In this case, adultery, those who are found guilty committing adultery will be strokes hundred times for those unmarried while for those married, they will be stone to death. [4] As Islamic Law is not applied in our country, especially concerning adultery, people turns to be so daring to commit adultery though they know the impacts of adultery in here and here after. Regarding to a hadith of the prophet "When one of you have sex with your wife, it is a rewarded act of charity." The companions were surprised and said, "But we do it purely out of our desire. How can it be counted as charity?" The Prophet replied, "If you had done it with a forbidden woman, it would have been counted as a sin, but if you do it in legitimacy, it is counted as charity."[5] Thus, Islamic Law seems to be practically applied for those who commit adultery especially to convince them and as a lesson to others. Thus, the crime of adultery can be reduced when we follow the guidelines of Allah.

Reference

 [1]  http://www.csmonitor.com/ accessed on 21/04/2011

 [2]  http://www.laweddie.com/ accessed on 21/04/2011

 [3] Muhammad Mahmud Abdullah, Perbuatan yang Mendatangkan Kebinasaan, ( Kuala Lumpur, Pustaka al-Shafa, 2008), page 31

 [4] Subhi Mahmasani, Kes-Kes Kehakiman Berkaitan Jenayah Hudud, Qisas, dan Kekeluargaan di Zaman Al-Khulafa’ Al-Rashidin, (Kuala Lumpur, IIUM Press, 2009 ), page 1,2,17,18,19

 [5] http://www.islamfortoday.com/athar19.htm accessed on 26/03/2011