ISLAMS GIFTS TO THE WORLD [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

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.