Thus Spoke a Couple: a Corpus-Based Content Analysis of Spousal Duties Fatwas

Abstract

Abstract This study explores the topic of spousal duties within the Arab-Muslim world, using a corpus of fatwa inquiries to investigate how Muslim spouses perceive and negotiate their rights and duties within the marital relationship. Acknowledging the complexity of the causes underlying the failure to fulfill spousal rights, this study capitalizes on the rewarding potentials of digital tools by examining the questions posed by the mustaftīs (inquirers). A corpus of 150,000 fatwas, drawn from Islamweb.net and encapsulating approximately 11 million tokens, serves as the data for our analysis. Using the semantic network tool ConceptNet, a lexicon delineating spousal rights is created and employed to assess the prominence and relationships of certain themes in the dataset. Central themes – treatment, housing, financial support, sexual relationship, and obedience – emerge as the primary axes for examining the nuances of marital obligations and rights. The findings reveal the nuanced interplay between traditional norms and contemporary religious discourse, with implications for understanding gender roles and authority within Arab-Muslim marriages. The study confirms that while Shariʿah offers a foundational framework, there remains a need for context-specific interpretation, often sought through fatwa consultations. The study also underscores the potential of corpus linguistics to deepen our understanding of religious texts and their application to modern marital issues, advocating for further research into fatwas across different languages and cultures.