Temporary Marriage in Islam

#20

Please make a correction from ``Muta`a is permitted in Shia Islam `` to ``Muta`a was permitted in Shia Islam``. I am a kizilbash and I know this issue in detail.

Thanks,

haideri

Re: # 72, Jang:
{You should focus on Mohammad`s behavior not sex with slave girls in the information provided }

why? the article is about various kinds of marriages as codified in islam, not mohammeds ``behaviour``. i suggest you to focus. besides the point that noone is rushing to marry 6 yr olds out of religiosity. OTOH today, various codified marriages are practiecd.

Re: # 70

All of this must have happened just as the clock would have struck 12:00 PM, because the best argugment that you have ever made at chowk is ``what is this kanjarpuna``, however, I have no idea what you are capable of doing at your `finest hour`.

Mr Gill, are you really of ``Gill`` caste or did you take the name after the name of Chak Gillan.
just curious.

I have never seen a Muslim being a Gill before.

ye bjkumar, beej ka rishtay daar hai kia?

kyon bey susree kay kaun hai tu?

Re: # 63

zaahid sharaab peene de masjid meN baith kar
yaa woh jagah bataade jahaaN par Khudaa na ho!!!

Mirza Ghalib

Re: # 72, Jang:
You should focus on Mohammad`s behavior not sex with slave girls in the information provided by Ramanujan in response to #42, masadi. Are you trying to divert attention from issue at hand? Or, is there another explanation?

As far as I am concerned, Mohammad was just a human being - I do not wish to undermine his achievements, particularly, in the fields of economics, social dynamics, and widening of the benefits of wars to include the right to booty for soldiers in the attacked countries - but has been put on pedestal due to covert reasons. There is no reason to expect and demand extraordinarily high personal behavior from him. Amazing thing is that this chicanery has lasted for fifteen hundred years. No doubt this is due to the vile compact between the Mullahs and the Kings, yielding the territories in discombobulated Europe and exceptionally pacific India and China due to tolerant way of life expounded by Gautam Buddha - and the widespread illiteracy and lack of educational sophistication between Pakistan and West Africa, both included.

#69 by Ramanujan

all i see is things about LIMITING wanton sexual predatory practices by invading soldiers... i dont see ``recommending`` sex with slaves? it seems to codify what ok and what not, and that would be better than ramdom violence (in 7-th century) dont you think?

Re: # 69, Ramanujam:

You must be a leftists Muslim posing as a Hindu. How can you know so much about Muslim Books?

Mr. Gill,

``.......... It`s a matter of getting used to something even though it may be reprehensible.........``

Are you willing to get to used to abuse of women, children, other humans, slavery, exploitation, lying, murder, mayhem, rape, massacres, etc....?!?!?!?

I`ve never swam with the tide.......I don`t get used to anything.......Just because the deviants have deviously delievered a blow to the humanity doesn`t mean you should fall down because everyone is falling down.....we are humans....not sheep or monkeys......

``......P.S: Prostitutes are human beings and I respect them.......``

Respect is earned and not profession centric......it is earned on individualistic merits......Your broad statement is an affliction suitable for leftists and liberals, and apologists who intentionally or otherwise do more harm than good to the ``victims``.......

I wrote an essay in college for an advanced philosophy course......I was the only one who spoke against homosexuality in this liberal college.....the professor was a liberal.....we had to use the logic and philosophies of ancient, mediveal, and modern philosophers.....to support or oppose moral issues......though the professor disagreed with me on the stance and was visibly angry and displeased, he gave me an A+ because all the combined liberal brains couldn`t nullify or even remotely challenge my arguments against homosexuality...........an abnormality that shouldn`t be accepted........

Re: #42 by masadi

[Could you please produce the documents in your possession that reveal that the prophet consummated marriage with a 9 year old. Why have you picked the 9 year figure as against the 16 year figure revealed by the same documents? ]

Here`s some info for you:

[Sahih Muslim Book 008, Number 3310:
`A`isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported: Allah`s Apostle (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house when I was nine years old.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64
Narrated `Aisha:
that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).

Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 65
Narrated `Aisha:
that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old. Hisham said: I have been informed that `Aisha remained with the Prophet for nine years (i.e. till his death).`` what you know of the Quran (by heart)`

Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 88
Narrated `Ursa:
The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with `Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).

Some Muslims claim that it was Abu Bakr who approached Muhammad asking him to marry his daughter. This is of course not true and here is the proof.

Sahih Bukhari 7.18
Narrated `Ursa:
The Prophet asked Abu Bakr for `Aisha`s hand in marriage. Abu Bakr said ``But I am your brother.`` The Prophet said, ``You are my brother in Allah`s religion and His Book, but she (Aisha) is lawful for me to marry.``

Arabs were a primitive lot with little rules to abide. Yet they had some code of ethics that they honored scrupulously. For example, although they fought all the year round, they abstained from hostilities during certain holy months of the year. They also considered Mecca to be a holy city and did not make war against it. A adopted son’s wife was deemed to be a daughter in law and they would not marry her. Also it was customary that close friends made a pact of brotherhood and considered each other as true brothers. The Prophet disregarded all of these rules anytime they stood between him and his interests or whims.

Abu Bakr and Muhammad had pledged to each other to be brothers. So according to their costoms Ayesha was supposed to be like a niece to the Holy Prophet. Yet that did not stop him to ask her hand even when she was only six years old.

But this moral relativist Prophet would use the same excuse to reject a woman he did not like.
Sahih Bukhari V.7, B62, N. 37
Narrated Ibn `Abbas:
It was said to the Prophet, ``Won`t you marry the daughter of Hamza?`` He said, ``She is my foster niece (brother`s daughter). ``

Hamza and Abu Bakr both were the foster brothers of Muhammad. But Ayesha must have been too pretty for the Prophet to abide by the codes of ethics and custom.

In the following Hadith he confided to Ahesha that he had dreamed of her before soliciting her from her father.

Sahih Bukhari 9.140
Narrated `Aisha:
Allah`s Apostle said to me, ``You were shown to me twice (in my dream) before I married you. I saw an angel carrying you in a silken piece of cloth, and I said to him, `Uncover (her),` and behold, it was you. I said (to myself), `If this is from Allah, then it must happen.` Then you were shown to me, the angel carrying you in a silken piece of cloth, and I said (to him), `Uncover (her), and behold, it was you. I said (to myself), `If this is from Allah, then it must happen.` ``

Whether Muhammad had actually such dream or he just said it to please Ayesha is not the point. What matters here is that it indicates that Ayesaha was a baby being “carried” by an angel when the Prophet dreamed of her.

There are numerous hadithes that explicitly reveal the age of Ayesha at the time of her marriage. Here are some of them.

Sahih Bukhari 5.236.
Narrated Hisham`s father:
Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married `Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed that marriage when she was nine years old.

Sahih Bukhari 5.234
Narrated Aisha:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, ``Best wishes and Allah`s Blessing and a good luck.`` Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah`s Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.

And in another Hadith we read.

Sunan Abu-Dawud Book 41, Number 4915, also Number 4916 and Number 4917
Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu`minin:
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) married me when I was seven or six. When we came to Medina, some women came. according to Bishr`s version: Umm Ruman came to me when I was swinging. They took me, made me prepared and decorated me. I was then brought to the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him), and he took up cohabitation with me when I was nine. She halted me at the door, and I burst into laughter.

In the above hadith we read that Ayesha was swinging, This is a play of little girls not grown up people. The following Hadith is particularly interesting because it shows that Ayesha was so small that was not aware what was going on when the Holy Prophet “surprised” her by going to her.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 90
Narrated Aisha:
When the Prophet married me, my mother came to me and made me enter the house (of the Prophet) and nothing surprised me but the coming of Allah`s Apostle to me in the forenoon.


Must have been quite a surprise! But the following is also interesting because it demonstrates that she was just a kid playing with her dolls. Pay attention to what the interpreter wrote in the parenthesis. (She was a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty)


Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 73, Number 151
Narrated `Aisha:
I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet, and my girl friends also used to play with me. When Allah`s Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves, but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me. (The playing with the dolls and similar images is forbidden, but it was allowed for `Aisha at that time, as she was a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty.) (Fateh-al-Bari page 143, Vol.13)


Sahih Muslim Book 008, Number 3311
`A`isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah`s Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and he was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.

The holy Prophet died when he was 63. So he must have married Ayesha when he as 51 and went to her when he was 54.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 73, Number 33
Narrated `Aisha:
I never felt so jealous of any woman as I did of Khadija, though she had died three years before the Prophet married me, and that was because I heard him mentioning her too often, and because his Lord had ordered him to give her the glad tidings that she would have a palace in Paradise, made of Qasab and because he used to slaughter a sheep and distribute its meat among her friends.


Khadija died in December of 619 AD. That is two years before Hijra. At that time the Prophet was 51-years-old. So in the same year that Khadija died the prophet married Ayesha and took her to his home 3 years later, i.e. one year after Hijra. But until she grow up he married Umm Salama.

In another part Ayesha claims that as long as she remembers her parents were always Muslims.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 58, Number 245

Narrated `Aisha:
(the wife of the Prophet) I never remembered my parents believing in any religion other than the true religion (i.e. Islam),



If Ayesha was older i.e. 16 or 18 as some Muslims claim, she would have remembered the religion of her parents prior to becoming Muslims.

Now someone may still claim that all these hadithes are lies. People are free to say whatever they want. But truth is clear like the Sun for those who have eyes.

No sane person would be aroused by a 6-year-old child. Decent people wince at the thought of this. Yet some Muslims deny the whole thing. The question is why so many followers of Muhammad would fabricate so many false hadithes about the age of Ayisha, which incidentally confirm each other?

I can tell you why people would attribute false miracles to their prophet. Babis believe that Bab started to praise God as soon as he was born. There is a Hadith like that also about Muhammad. Christians believe the birth of the Christ was miraculous and the Jews believe Moses opened a dry passageway through the Red Sea. Believers love to hear these stories. It confirms their faith. There are many absurd miracles attributed to Muhammad in the hadiths, despite the fact that he denied being able to perform any miracles. But why should anyone fabricate a lie about the age of Ayisha that would portray his Prophet as a pedophile?





[Where is the practice of ``having sex with slaves`` recommended by the Quran?]


About Slave girls and what the right hand possesses:

“It is not lawful for you (to marry other) women after this, nor to change them for other wives even though their beauty attracts you, except those (captives or slaves) whom your right hand possesses. And Allah is Ever a Watcher over all things.” Surah 33:52



Tafsir of this ayat take from Mawdudi’s The Meaning of the Qur’an:

Book 10, page 137, footnote no. 94
“This verse explains why one is permitted to have conjugal relations with one’s slave-girls besides the wedded wives, and there is no restriction on their number. The same thing has also been stated in Surah An-Nisa:3; Al-Mu’minun:6; and Al-Ma’arij:30. In all these verses the slave-girls have been mentioned as a separate class from the wedded wives, and conjugal relations with them have been permitted. Moreover, verse 3 of Surah An-Nisa lays down the number of the wives as four, but neither has Allah fixed the number of the slave-girls in that verse nor made any allusion to their number in the other relevant verses. Here, of course, the Holy Prophet is being addressed and told: ‘It is no more lawful for you to take other women in marriage, or divorce any of the present wives and take another wife in her stead; slave-girls, however, are lawful.’ This shows no restriction has been imposed in respect of slave-girls.

This however does not mean that the Divine Law has provided the rich an opportunity to purchase as many slave-girls as they like for their carnal indulgence. This is in fact how the self-seeking people have exploited and abused the Law. The Law had been made for the convenience of the people; it had not been made to be abused……..The Shari’ah made all these laws keeping in view human conditions and requirements for the convenience of men.”

And those who guard their chastity (i.e. private parts from illegal sexual acts). Except with their wives and the (women slaves and captives) whom their right hand possess,--for (then) they are not to be blamed.” Surah 70:29-30

Tafsir on this ayat refers you to Tafsir of Surah 23:6


“Except from their wives or (the captives and slaves) that their right hands possess,--for then, they are free from blame;” Surah 23:6

“(1) Two categories of women have been excluded from the general command of guarding the private parts: (a) wives, (b) women who are legally in one’s possession, i.e. slave-girls. Thus the verse clearly lays down the law that one is allowed to have sexual relations with one’s slave-girl as with one’s wife, the basis being possession and not marriage. If marriage had been the condition, the slave-girl also would have been included among the wives, and there was no need to mention them separately…..” Meaning of the Qur’an Book 8, page 10, footnote 7.



“Also (forbidden are) women already married, except those (captives and slaves) whom your hands possess. Thus has Allah ordained for you…..” Surah 4:24



Tafsir of Mawdudi, Book2, page 112, footnote 44:

“That is, ‘Those women, who became prisoners of war, while their husbands are left behind in the War Zone, are not unlawful because their marriage ties have been broken by the fact that they have come into the Islamic Zone. It is lawful to marry such women and make them wives, and it is also lawful for those, in whose possession they are, to have sexual relations with them.

There was, however, a difference of opinion as to whether such a woman is lawful if her husband has also been captured along with her. Imam Abu Hanifah and those of his way of thinking are of the opinion that the marriage tie of such a pair should remain intact but Imam Malik and Shafi’ee are of the opinion that it should be broken.’

As there exist many misunderstandings in the minds of people concerning the slave-girls taken as prisoners of war, the following should be carefully studied:

(1) It is not lawful for a soldier to have conjugal relations with a prisoner of war as soon as she falls into his hands. The Islamic Law requires that all such women should be handed over to the government, which has the right to set them free or to exchange them with the Muslim prisoners in the hands of the enemy or distribute them among the soldiers. It is lawful for a soldier to cohabit only with that woman who has been formally given to him by the Islamic government.

(2) Even then, he shall have to wait for one monthly course before he can cohabit with her in order to ensure whether she is pregnant or not; otherwise it shall be unlawful to cohabit with her before delivery.

(3) It does not matter whether the female prisoner of war belongs to the People of the Book or not. Whatever her religion, she becomes lawful for the man to whom she has been given.

(4) None but the one whom the slave-girl is given has the right to “touch her”. The offspring of such a woman from his seed shall be his lawful children and shall have the same legal rights as are given by the Divine Law to children from one’s loins. After the birth of a child she cannot be sold as a slave-girl and shall automatically become free after her master’s death.

(5) If the master marries his slave-girl with another man, he forfeits his conjugal rights over her, but retains other rights such as service from her.

(6) The maximum limit of four has not been prescribed for slave-girls as in the case of wives for the simple reason that the number of female prisoners of war is unpredictable. The lack of limit does by no means provide a license for the well-to-do people to buy any number of slave-girls for licentious purposes.

(7) The proprietary rights over a slave male or female as given to a person by the government are transferable like all other legal proprietary rights.

(8) The handing over of the proprietary rights over a slave-girl to a man formally by the government makes her as much lawful for him as the giving of a hand of a free woman to a man by her parents or guardian by means of nikah (marriage ceremony). Therefore there is no reason why a man who does not hold marriage in detestation should hold sexual intercourse with a slave-girl in detestation.

(9) When once the government hands over the female prisoner of war to someone, it has no right whatever to take her back from him, just as the parent or guardian has no right after the woman is handed over to a man through nikah.

(10) It should also be noted well that if a military commander temporarily distributes female prisoners of war among the soldiers for sexual purposes, or permits them to have sexual relations for the time being, such an act shall be unlawful and there is absolutely no difference between this and fornication, and fornication is a crime according to the Islamic code.” ]



[And regardless of what the prophet did or did not do, of which you are no position to judge based upon your ignorance of the evidence, how does that translate into ``real Islamic practices`` when the role of the prophet was only to convey the Quran as God`s message? What percentage of the Islamic population practices what you allege as ``Real Islamic practices``? ]

So the prophet is not the role-model, eh? Very convenient for him. And for apologists.

Just because a high percentage of Muslims do not marry 4 wives does not mean that it is not sanctioned in the Quran - by God, no less.



[In short, if you have zero evidence of something, don`t know even what the source of your allegations , it is best to shut up rather than reveal yourself to be a total damn fool on here, my suggestion to you. ]

Well, it looks as though YOU don`t know what YOU are talking about. I would suggest you are the ``total damn fool``.

I think you should refute this evidence, OR JUST SHUT UP.

Re: # 65, ahi441313:
Your statement is one element of the reformulation of the sorely needed raison d`etre I talked about in #64. How about this, you other Pakistanis?

Re: # 66, rf786:
Lekin, Janaab aapne ye nahi bataayaaa ki 786 se Bismillah tak aap kaise pahunche. Maine Amitabh baccchan kii Kuli movie main aur Veer Zaaraa mein 786 ke baare main sunaa thaa. So aapkaa naam padr kar guzaarish kar baitthaa.

Re: # 62
Dear Inquirer
Wah Wah, Wah Wah, Muqarar Irshad...kia shair kaha hai...
My apologies, will not be able to reciprocate, seems like I was born without the gene which can appreciate and remember poetry. Please do keep writing.

Why are we so obsessed with an Islamic interpretation of everything we do? Why do we need God`s nod to legitimize things that our conscience tells us are wrong?

Doesnt our religion somewhere say that intensions are more important than the contextual pretext under which the act is committed. (Inna ma aamal ul binniyaat)

If Shia`s are happy doing mutah and feel they do no wrong - thats fine.

If Sunnis dont want to do it - thats fine too.

Why do we have the constant urge to correct everyone else when we openly profess not being an authority on religion.

Lets move on with times and start respecting one another - regardless of their beliefs, their interpreations, their sexual habits, etc. . Live & let live.

An honest, respectful unmarried sexual relationship is far better than one committed with the intensions to deceive God, or worse, people.

Re: # 60, freethinker:

Pakistan shall have to reformulate its raison d`etr.