Search and find articles and topics quickly and accurately!  See different advanced ways to search for articles on this site.

Further Topic Research:
Syntax help

* This article only reflects the favoring views of Temporary Marriage in Islam.  My views toward this topic are not expressed in this article.   My views are expressed at this article.

Bismillahi RRahmani RRahim

 

The Temporary Marriage (Muta) is permitted in Islam

 

By

Ali Moghaddasi

 

 

Before reading this article, I advise you ( reader ) to go to  http://www.answering-christianity.com/muta_no.htm and read the article entitled The Temporary (Muta) Marriage is prohibited in Islam” written by Abdul Haleem. Because here I will criticize that while I prove the permission of Temporary Marriage in Islam, it is good to read that article before reading mine. I don’t define Temporary Marriage here, because Abdul Haleem has already defined it in his article using Shia Encyclopedia found in http://www.al-islam.org.

 

My essay has been partitioned in 3 parts:

1)     What does “Hadith” say about Temporary Marriage, according to Sunni and Shia point of view?

2)     What does “Quran” say about Temporary Marriage, according to Sunni and Shia point of view?

3)     Where is wrong in Abudl Haleem’s article (which is based on Quran alone) that has forced him to conclude that Temporary Marriage must be prohibited?

4)     Using Quran alone, we conclude that Temporary Marriage is permitted in Islam.

5)     What does “wisdom” say about Temporary Marriage, and if Islam prohibit Temporary Marriage, then haven’t Islam forgotten a necessary need of human being?

6)     Shia allows Temporary Marriage

 

What does “Hadith” say about Temporary Marriage, according to Sunni and Shia point of view

 

As you probably know, Sunni and Shia are two major Muslim groups that have some different opinions about some of Islamic topics. This does not mean they have different Quran, or different Prophet, or… . No, Sunni and Shia both have the same Quran and the same Prophet and the same Qiblah and … . The reason why they have some different ideas about some topics is that they have somehow different “Ahaadith”. Here I don’t go deep into this difference to explain. If you want to know more about differences in Ahaadith of Shia and Sunni, you con go to http://www.al-islam.org or any other Islamic site in the Internet. But one of important things to notice is that, some ahaadith are common between both Shia and Sunni, and when this happens, the credibility and authority of those ahaadith are much high. Now let’s see what do ahaadith of Shia and Sunni say about Temporary Marriage.

As you can see in Abdul Haleem’s article, there are 3 (or 4) types of ahaadith in Sunni sources: 1) There are some ahaadith saying that Mutah was permitted by Prophet. 2) There are some other ahaadith saying that Mutah was prohibited by Prophet after some times that it was permitted. 3) There are some other ahaadith saying that Mutah was permitted by Prophet and never prohibited, until the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab, who prohibited it.

But what does Shia ahaadith say about Mutah ? There is only one type of hadith in Shia source of ahaadith about permission of Mutah : according to Shia, Prophet permitted Mutah and never prohibited it, until the time of Umar, who prohibited it.

 

Now compare Shia ahaadith and Sunni ahaadith, you will see that the only common ahaadith are those which say that Prophet permitted Mutah but Umar prohibited it long time later. So as I said, this common hadith is more authentic, and we can conclude that other types of ahaadith in Sunni source of hadith are not valid. Especially when we see that there are heavy contradicted ahaadith in Sunni source of hadith, but there is no contradiction in Shia hadith about Mutah, so Shia hadith about mutah is more acceptable.

 

So according to Hadith science, Temporary Marriage is permitted in Islam. Notice that because Sunnis haven’t agreed with Temporary Marriage, they have not any condition and detailed explanation and information about it, while you can find detailed and well-organized information about Temporary Marriage and it’s conditions in Shia world of knowledge.

 

What does “Quran” say about Temporary Marriage, according to Sunni and Shia point of view

 

Shia says that 4.24 directly refers to Temporary Marriage (Muta) where it says “Fa Mastamta’tum Bihi Minhunna…” (Then as to those whom you profit by…) . Muta is the root word for Mastamta’tum in Arabic language. Some Sunnis try to have different explanation and “tafsir” for this verse to support their idea of prohibition of Mutah, but even a lot of  Sunni scholars and Mufassirs agree that this part of verse is about Mutah. Those Sunnis that agree that this verse permits Mutah, say that this verse has been abrogated later by Prophet ( like Fakhr Raazi ).

Again you see that the strong common tafsir of this verse between Sunnis and Shias is about permission of Temporary Marriage, so according to this part of Quran we must conclude that Temporary Marriage is permitted in Islam. But why Abdul Haleem insists that Temporary Marriage is prohibited in Islam and we have only Permanent Marriage in Islam ? we will see this in the next part.

 

Where is wrong in Abudl Haleem’s article ( which is based on Quran alone ) that has forced him to conclude that Temporary Marriage must be prohibited ?

 

Now let’s have a review on Abdul Haleem’s article and criticize it. I will criticize the words using only Quran alone, so even Quran aloners cannot disagree it:

 

Abdul Haleem says :

<<

From these ayahs, it is apparent (1) A marriage contract must consist of more than an arrangement for satisfaction of lusts (Quran 4:24, 25, and 27); and (2) Quran 4:24 merely states that "all others are lawful," i.e. one may marry any partner to whom marriage is not otherwise prohibited in the Quran. It does not say mut’a is alright, and the ayah’s discussion of the dowery does not imply the legality of mut’a but merely recites the universal rule that the dowery contracted for cannot be reduced except by mutual agreement. See also Quran 4:19.

>>

 

Albeit those sentences are not exact and there are some mistakes in them, but because I want to shorten my article, I don’t go deep into it. Abdul Haleem says that a marriage must have more than satisfaction of lusts. Abdul Haleem thinks that Temporary Marriage has been created only for satisfaction of lust, so he concludes that it is not legal. But he is wrong.

Temporary Marriage is not only for satisfaction of lusts ! Having pleasure and enjoying the other partner, physically and spiritually”, “achieving spiritual stability” , “social and psychological tranquility”, “love and mercy to each other”, “Providing an alternative way to avoid the sin of fornication”, “protecting from falling into the hands of evil and sin”, “perserving faith and religion”, and other benefits exist and can be in Temporary Marriage (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~azma/WhatisMuta.htm ).You know that all of these benefits have Quranic basics. Even if we suppose that someone may perform Temporary Marriage just for satisfaction of lust, again this does not mean that we must destroy the law and prohibit Temporary Marriage. Like Permanent Marriage that we cannot prohibit it while there are some people who misuse it and don’t have a good and complete benefit of Permanent Marriage.

 

<<

Quran 4:24 merely states that "all others are lawful," i.e. one may marry any partner to whom marriage is not otherwise prohibited in the Quran. It does not say mut’a is alright,

>>

 

The reader can briefly see the contradiction in this sentence. “All other are lawful” means that Temporary Marriage is also lawful! “It does not say mut’a is alright” is in contradiction with “all others are lawful” because when Quran mentions that “all others are lawful” then there is no need to mention all of them by name! But even Quran has mentioned Mutah strictly as I said before.

 

<<

and the ayah’s discussion of the dowery does not imply the legality of mut’a but merely recites the universal rule that the dowery contracted for cannot be reduced except by mutual agreement.

>>

 

It is vice versa. The dowry subject in this verse strictly defines another type of marriage next to Permanent Marriage. Lets see some verses about dowry in Permanent Marriage :

 

"5.5" ... and the chaste from among the believing women and the chaste from among those who have been given the Book before you (are lawful for you); when you have given them their dowries, taking (them) in marriage,…

 

You see, in marriage, you must give women their dowries first, not after profit by them.

 

"2.237":    And if you divorce them before you have touched them and you have appointed for them a portion, then (pay to them) half of what you have appointed,...

 

You see, when you are speaking about marriage and divorce, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT PROFIT BY THEM AND EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT TOUCHED THEM!, you must give them their dowries.

 

Now, when we look at 4.24, we see a completely different structure :

 

"4.24": ...Then as to those whom you profit by, give them their dowries as appointed;…

 

( Arabic : Famastamta’tum Bihi Minhunna, Fa’tuhunna Ujurahunna )

 

You see, this verse is introducing us another marriage with some DIFFERENT structure than others: In this type of marriage, the dowry is NOT required before marriage,  you give their dowries when you have profited by them. How can this verse be about marriage while it says we must pay dowry “after” profiting by woman, while in other verses we see that we must pay “dowry” even if we didn’t profit by her? If the type of marriage in this verse is like marriage in other verses so there is a big contradiction here.

 

So 4.24 is speaking about dowry in Temporary Marriage, not in Permanent Marriage.

 

Abdul Haleem continues:

 

<<

Moreover, any argument based on Quran 4:24 fails to address the fundamental incompatibility of mut’a with Quranic criteria for divorce. While Islam does not require OBJECTIVE proof of some fault such as "mental cruelty" or "adultery" as a precondition for divorce, the Quran makes it clear that there must be some BONA FIDE "disagreement," "incompatibility" or "conflict" between the spouses

>>

 

Then he mentions verses 4.35, 4.128, 4.129, 4.130 to prove his idea and finally says:

 

<<

In mut’a the marriage does not end due to bona fide disagreement between spouses but, rather, precisely BECAUSE they have AGREED IN ADVANCE it should end!

>>

 

Now lets see where Abdul Haleem is wrong:

 

Abdul Haleem wants to say that a cause for divorce is REQUIRED. But what does divorce mean? It means breaking a Permanent Marriage. Logically it will have a cause, because if there is not any cause so why did they decide to marry permanently? Therefore the concept of “divorce” is related to Permanent Marriage, not Temporary Marriage. If Abdul Haleem wants to prove his point about Temporary Marriage from the “divorce” channel, then first of all he must PROVE that marriage in Islam must be permanent only. If marriage must be permanent, then surely the only way for separation will be “divorce”, and as he said, divorce needs some cause. But what if marriage is not required to be permanent?

 

From another point of view, his reasoning is this:

 

1-The only way of separation between husband and wife is Divorce.

2-Divorce relates with Permanent Marriage

3-so Marriage must be permanent.

 

This reasoning is false, because the verses that he mentioned don’t determine that “the only way of separation” is divorce. So he have to use this reasoning first:

 

1-Marriage must be permanent

2-Divorce is related with Permanent Marriage

3-so logically the only way of separation will be “divorce”.

 

If he proves this, then it will be acceptable, but again he cannot prove this from Quran.

 

Using Quran alone, we conclude that Temporary Marriage is permitted in Islam.

 

You see, all of Abdul Haleem’s points opposing Temporary Marriage were answered with the use of Quran verses and logic. So even using Quran alone, Abdul Haleem couldn’t prove that Temporary Marriage is invalid, and we proved that Temporary Marriage is valid in Islam using Quran alone.

 

In the last part of Abdul Haleem’s article, we see :

 

<<

Like many innovations unfavorable to women, it can be traced directly to Judaism!

This "Israeeleeat" doctrine has no place in Islam.

>>

 

I agree that some things has been added to Islam by jews, and we must find them and destroy them so that Islam remain pure, but we can not say that some thing has been come from jews immediately after we see it in Islam as well. As you saw, Temporary Marriage is not among “Israeeleeat”, and is provable by Quran alone and also Hadith and history.

 

What does “wisdom” say about Temporary Marriage, and if Islam prohibit Temporary Marriage, then haven’t Islam forgotten a necessary need of human being ?

 

The answer for this question is obvious when you see the growth of illegal sex in societies that Temporary Marriage is not defined and even some growth in Islamic Republic of Iran which is a Shia society but the culture of people has not accepted Temporary Marriage at large because of some historical reasons. Permanent Marriage is not always possible for young (and even non-young) people and all of them can not control themselves, so what can they do? If Temporary Marriage, which is legal in Islam, have some organized and systematic manner to be done in the society then the illegal sex and prostitution will be lessened heavily and a lot of spiritual problems of society will be solved. So how can we say that Islam has forgotten this necessity for the society? Can we say that Islam dictates Permanent Marriage and forces people to it while there is no need and good reason to prohibit Temporary Marriage? This thinking is oppression to Islam and Islam is more open and large than this. Islam is a general Din ( religion ) for all people in all societies and not only for those people who can control themselves when they can not marry permanently, so Islam has considered needs for all type of people who want to remain pure, and that’s why Islam has permitted Temporary Marriage. Also there is no logical answer to prohibit Temporary Marriage. Why prohibit it? What problem prohibiting Temporary Marriage will solve? Isn’t world full of illegal sex? Will Temporary Marriage increase some to it? NO. Briefly it will cause dirty sex in the world to lessen a lot, while the religion and Iman (belief) will exist and will not change.

 

Shia allows Temporary Marriage

 

We saw that Quran permits Temporary Marriage, Hadith permits Temporary Marriage, and Logic also agrees Temporary Marriage.

Considering logic, hadith and Quran, Shia says that Islam permits Temporary Marriage. The reader may wish to be familiar more with Shia school of thought in Islam, which can be found in some sites like http://www.al-islam.org. Also if you have some questions about Temporary Marriage and it’s conditions, and also other related questions, you can go to http://members.ozemail.com.au/~azma/QuestionsonMuta.htm.

 

 

Wassalamu Ala Manittaba’al Huda

 

 

 

 

Back to Is Muta (Temporary Marriage) allowed in Islam? section.

Back to Women in Islam and Christianity section.


Send your comments.

Back to Main Page.