Abstract

Heterosexual intercourse is epidemiologically the leading factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS. Although the heterogeneous Muslims condemn condom use as leading to zina, the Muslim majority regions of North Africa and the Middle East have the lowest HIV prevalence in the world. Through the desk-top approach the paper evaluated Islamic marriage as a possible panacea to the problems of HIV/AIDS. The correlation between religion and the spread of HIV/AIDS has remained ambiguous, for while both Christians and Muslims advanced the same moral values, HIV prevalence peaked among majority adult Christian populations and drastically dropped among majority Muslim populations. This means the Islamic marriage praxis includes some unique features. Such features include obligatory pre-marital circumcision, strict separation of sexes, combined religious, judiciary and political sanction against pre-marital sex, extra-marital sex and compulsory levirate marriage. The unique marriage sanctions are gradually restricting freedoms in the areas of polygyny and divorce; slowly restricting multiple sexual contacts which are epidemiologically prone to HIV/AIDS. Hypothetically, Islamic marriage can impact favorably on HIV/AIDS prevalence.

Key words: Abstinence, fidelity, HIV/AIDS, panacea, zawj.

Abbreviation

AIDS: Acquired immunity deficiency syndrome; ARV: Anti-retroviral; HIV: Human immunodeficiency virus; MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres 2014); NAC: National Aids Council (Zimbabwe); OALD: Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary; PCN: Polygamy is a Conditional Necessity; STDs: Sexual Transmitted Diseases; TISM1: The Islamic Sexual Morality I; USAID: United States of America International Development.