Not Being Alone, and the Preservation of Honour

For instance, in Islamic law you do not go alone with a woman who is not a relative. It is one of the things that is a condition within the society; it is part of the social contract. A man would not be alone with a woman who is not either a direct relative or his wife. He would not go alone with her: it is prohibited for him in Islamic law. And vice versa: it is prohibited for a woman. It means he cannot be in a room alone with her. Being in company is another matter — that is not being alone. But one is not supposed to be alone with a woman, absolutely not; and a woman is not supposed to be alone with a man.

And this relates to the protection of honour: so that you are not accused. Because what happens often is that your intentions might be perfectly good, but somebody sees you coming out of a room with somebody, and — ah. Big problem.

In our culture this is a major problem: sexual harassment, these types of things. If there are witnesses, you do not have the problem. When there are two people alone together, it is his word against hers. Take the case of Anita Hill — the society split: Democrats believed Anita and Republicans believed the other man. And the thing about it is that the man's honour is tainted. One may well incline to believing Anita; but the point is, maybe she was not telling the truth, maybe she was paid by the Democrats — these are just possibilities. In that case, here is a man whose honour is destroyed. Or here is a man about whom, for the rest of his life, people are going to scratch their heads: did he, or did he not?

So the idea of preserving people's honour is very strong in Islam. A person has a right; it is a fundamental human right. It is a divinely given right that you have your honour intact, and you do everything you can to preserve that honour. One, you do not lie. You do not steal. You do not cheat. These are all things that disparage your honour, and you become known for it.

Which is one of the reasons why, in Islamic law, if you see somebody do something wrong, you are told to veil their faults. Because if you expose people in a society, then the impetus for guarding their honour, or for making tawbah, repentance, is diminished. If someone becomes known for lying, then even if he starts telling the truth, people are going to remember: oh, that is the liar. So it lessens the ability of a person to do that, and diminishes the impetus. And then wealth: preservation of wealth is why there is no stealing, and things like that. So these are the five things.