Temporary
Marriages
By: Sayyid Mujtaba Busavi Lari
Islam is a realistic and
practical religion. Divinely inspired, it fits human nature like a glove. It does not
exalt, as ideals, ways of life which are contrary to nature. It therefore rejected the
doctrine (which the Christian Church had promulgated during its first six centuries) that
celibacy was a desirable or meritorious way of life, estimable as a work of supererogation
(i.e. adding to the store of merit which could be shared amongst the saints and even
turned to the salvation of sinners for whom they prayed) while marriage, though not an
unlawful state, falls in a moral category called "makruh" which lies
halfway' between the "mubah" or "indifferent" and the "haram"
or totally forbidden.
Popes and Catholics tend to
follow this doctrine to this day, as also do the higher ranks of the Orthodox hierarchy.
It was one of the Catholic doctrines against which Luther and his Protestants revolted,
and it is forming a great source of controversy within the Church of Rome at this very
date at which we write. After long discussions at a Vatican Congress, it was decided that
"marriage is still less meritorious than celibacy. and no alteration in the Church's
doctrine can be allowed on this point."
The sexual instinct has the
deepest roots in human nature. Unless it is properly catered for and regulated, it avenges
itself. It responds to suppression by psychological explosions that can be volcanic in
their effect if they take place simultaneously in large numbers of people. It might well
be held that the disastrous breakdown of the family institution in the West is precisely
such an explosive reaction against Christian attempts to suppress the sex instinct instead
of sanctifying and subliminating it in its natural channels. Christians must ask
themselves whether they have not committed the very sin of which their Lord and Master
accused the Pharisees of His day that of "binding on men's backs burdens too heavy to
be borne." Like caged beasts escaping from captivity; the people of the West dash
forth from the bondage in which Christianity had tried to hold them, and in an equal and
opposite reaction go much too far in the other direction.
Islam makes a proper marriage,
when a man and woman reach adult hood, a merit and a virtue. Thus it turns the
God-implanted instinct to its correct operation in the strengthening of society. It bans
bestial abuse of the instinct, but exalts its truly human use in accordance with the way
in which God has made mankind. A man was made to love a wife and children. This is
acknowledged in every race in every clime.
It is written in Sura 3: Al-i-Imran
-"Imran's Family" (verse 14, in part): "Fair in the eyes of men is the love
of objects which are the desire of their instinct, women and sons. . . .."
Islam during the 14 centuries of
its existence has done its utmost to end the scandal of prostitution which takes such a
heavy toll in family and social life, and degrades both the women who are compelled to
practise it and the men whose incontinence exploits them. The law of "the temporary
marriage" (ezdevaj-i-muwaqat or muta'a) by the formula (or seeghe)
laid down in it, was instituted to establish conditions under which a man who was
compelled by the necessities of his business or for other causes to be away from home for
long periods, or who desired to give temporary assistance to a woman whose life had fallen
into difficulties, could undertake a union for a specified period under strictly
controlled conditions.
Remember that this beneficent
piece of legislation was produced through the Prophet of Islam in the environment of those
"days of ignorance" when men walked in darkness; and when illicit relationships
were as common as other types of immorality in those generations of unregenerate and
unenlightened persons. Most places had official "red-light districts" and houses
of ill-fame as a matter of course. To raise the thinking and living of men, and to put an
end to illicit sex, the Prophet of Islam brought in this law of "temporary
marriage", to canalise the sex instinct in sound channels.
The chapters on "Temporary
Marriage" in the book "Vassa'el" report that the Prophet posted an
edict in the streets and bazaars which read: "O people! God's Apostle has made
temporary marriage permissible for you, for the quenching of the fires of the sex
instinct, and for turning it to sound uses, that ye may not be the slaves of sexual
licence, fornication or illicit relationships." By this law the man and woman enter
upon a marriage, not of permanence, but of a limited time, and live as man and wife until
the expiry of the stated period. The only difference in this type of marriage is that it
does not carry with it the same rights of inheritance, nor does the man have to continue
to provide the woman's food, clothing and shelter after the termination of their
relationship. But to preserve proper order all the other rules that govern permanent
marriage must also be observed in the temporary marriage.
A woman who enters such a
contract is counted as the man's real wife and can claim all the rights which are legally
specified as such. As it is written in Sura IV. Nisa'a-"The Women" (verse
24): "To women whom you choose in temporary and conditional (muwaqat and muta'a)
marriage, give their dowry, as a duty."
The only difference between
permanent marriage and temporary marriage, so far as its social status is concerned, is
its duration. If the contract specifies a definite and limited period, that is a temporary
marriage. But the wife is as much a wife as if the contract had specified "a
permanent and unlimited period." The children of the temporary marriage are
recognised on precisely the same footing as those of a permanent marriage, and enjoy all
the legal and canonical and customary rights of children whose paternity is recognised.
One reason for prostitution is
that some men find it not within their reach to enter upon a permanent marriage, either
because their personality or their finances prevent them undertaking the heavy lifelong
responsibility. or because their stay in any one place can only be short. Merchants,
soldiers, students and even tourists find themselves in these conditions. It is the
realistic recognition of these facts, and Islam's consistent "yes!". to life,
which have produced the institution of "temporary marriage".
What better solution could there
be? Properly practised. this institution is a powerful antidote and preventative of ills
like prostitution and other social ailments. It blocks the way to women's selling
themselves, raises the general tone of public morality, and gives needed assistance to
women who, through no fault of their own, either by the death of their husband or some
other disaster, have fallen on bad times. We say "properly practised", because
there are licentious and ignorant persons who abuse this law, including opponents of Islam
who make misuse of it a basis for false propaganda and misrepresentation.
Temporary marriage preserves the
aspect of purity and saves people from sin. That something right can be misused by wicked
persons exposes those persons' wickedness. but does not invalidate the right institution.
The answer is to change them by replacing their wickedness with piety of spirit and
absolute moral standards. The Prophet of Islam was "sent to bring about the
excellences of virtue", and it is to this end that all Islam's efforts are directed.
There exists no law anywhere in
the world which is not twisted by the wicked to their own ends and against its original
purpose. This is true of laws which are of the greatest benefit to society. The law of
"temporary marriage" is one such. It should be backed with the full authority of
the state. Those who misuse it should be punished. Those who use it right should be
supported and aided in their righteous living.
In the "Temporary
Marriage" chapters of the book "Vassa'el" it is reported that the
Fifth Imam said, quoting the Imam Ali: "If the 2nd Caliph had not prohibited
temporary marriages, no Muslim, save perchance a few utterly degraded lewd fellows of the
baser sort, would have ever committed fornication." Close attention to the words of
Omar (the 2nd Caliph) as reported by the learned Islamic leaders and Ulema, and reflected
in both the Sunni and the Shia Feqh, leaves no doubt that in the time of the
Prophet himself "temporary marriage" was both permitted and frequent : but Omar,
for reasons which are not clear, towards the close of his Caliphate prohibited it in the
notorious phrase: "There were two dispensations which were both legal and frequently
practised during the time of the Prophet of God (on Whom be blessing), both of which I
cancel, annul, prohibit and will punish: and they are (1) the dispensation permitting
enjoyments prohibited to wearers of Ehram (Hajji's white garments) during
the interval between 'umra' ('little pilgrimage') and the full Hajj: (2) the dispensation
allowing 'temporary marriage' in particular circumstances."
Sunni Feqh gives more
information. But it is clear enough that in this proclamation Omar was acting merely on a
personal viewpoint, which was far from carrying with it the assent of other companions of
the Prophet, who both held ,hat temporary marriage is a true Islamic institution, and also
practised it themselves in many instances.
Division is the hallmark of our
age. Our magazines, newspapers, films and television are filled with meretricious
pictures: our radio with salacious stuff: our hoardings with posters of erotic enticement,
while our women dress seductively and go around half-naked. The whole ambience entices
youth off the path of virtue. Those who wish to be chaste are in grave danger all the
time. People of poor background, and little knowledge of Islamic law, criticise the law of
"temporary marriage" in foolish and illogical ignorance and prejudice; and this
lays a further obstacle before the feet of our young people.
What then should we do? We can
hardly expect even the best to master a total control of themselves and stem this powerful
flood so stimulating to sexual instincts, which, in the critical age of youth, are so
close to the surface and so impatient of outward control. Even if we imagined that the
ideal is the real, and that every one of our youth is endowed with what amounts to a
supernatural self-control, will this not of itself annul the purpose of the creation of
this instinct within humankind. prevent the continuance of the race, prevent the use of
that vital sperm, prevent the spirit and teachings of Islam being truly practised, in
accordance with the law proclaimed in Sura XXII: Hajj-"Pilgrimage",
(verse 78): "Strive in God's cause as ye should; for He has chosen you, and has in
His religion not laid a difficult or insupportable task upon you"?
Should we now return to the low
morals of our pre-Islamic past, and to that dirty habit of prostitution, with all the
social ills and personal misfortunes with which it has filled the Western world? Shall we
leave humanity to fall into that confusion of passions which is the law Of the jungle and
the behaviour of brute beasts?
It is written in Sura II: Baqara
- "The Heifer" (verse 61): "Remember O Israelis, that ye said: 'O Moses! We
cannot keep on with only one kind of food; so pray thy Lord to give us vegetables!' And he
replied: "Will ye exchange the better for the worse? Go down to Egypt and there find
what you want!. They were covered with humiliation and misery, for they had drawn upon
themselves the wrath of God.-. We should merit Moses. rebuke if we, who have been shown
that is good, preferred to return to fleshpots of our own past and the West's present.
Shall we barter a heritage of glory for a mess of pottage?
It is to prevent precisely this
disaster that the law of "temporary marriage'' was introduced. What better way could
there be to rescue millions of women, who are divorced or unmarried or widowed, from the
pressure to keep alive in wrongful ways and to prostitute their sex to meet the cost of
living? Some might be able to get a job and so a livelihood. But can that satisfy a
woman's inmost feelings and spiritual needs? Can it satisfy the emptiness left in her soul
by the loss of a husband's love and nearness? And what of her innate emotions and her
instinct of motherhood? Are not all these temptations to lead her astray unless proper
provision is made?
Men and women have taken up
temporary marriages in the West without legal, social or religious sanctions - and their
society has been cast into chaos. The West's thinkers are feeling after an institution
like Muslim "temporary marriage" to end this chaos.
Thus Bertrand Russell writes:
"Modern social and financial difficulties put obstacles in the way of youthful
marriages, contrary to our liking. A century or two ago the student completed his studies
between the ages of 17 and 20; and, when the pressures of instinct and the age of puberty
made him marriageable, he was able to enter that state. Very few remained unmarried until
they were 30 or 40. But today students only enter on their serious studies after the age
of 20 and proceed to their specialisation in industry or science. Even after they have got
their degree and left college, they have to spend quite a period securing their means of
livelihood; so that they may be 35 before they can afford to get married and found a
family The long gap between adulthood and marriage causes emotional and instinctive
upheavals in the sexual life and drives the victims to find relief where they had better
not. Would it not be better for the sake of the proper order of human society that we
should end this touchy problem by finding some proper outlet for the sexual instinct and
the marital urge to replace or to fill in that lengthy gap, and so safeguard public
health, posterity, morality, the principles of communication between men and women? Some
sort of temporary marriage for our girls and boys would be a solution and prepare them for
a permanent marriage later when they can afford it, saving them from the corruptions of
illicit sex and the spiritual pangs of conscience which follow that type of wrongdoing as
well as from the veneral diseases which only too often result"
Wilhelm van Loom
"Matrimonial Health as seen by Islam" (p.175) wrote: "Psychology has
confirmed that when men pass early marriageable age without getting wed, tendencies to
homosexuality or other forms of sexual satisfaction beset them. Statistics show that some
65% of men who have wives are unfaithful to them. To lessen their burdens the government
ought to introduce legislation making temporary marriage by consent of both parties legal,
with definite regulations and a proper form for them to sign and register."
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