Mut`ah
WHAT IS MEANT BY "MUT`AH NIKAH"? WHAT IS ITS HISTORY AND PLACE IN MODERN AGE?
Reply
"Mut`ah" refers to temporary marriage.
There is evidence in the books of the history and the cultural traditions of the Arabs that in certain situations, a temporary marital relationship between a man and a woman was considered to be acceptable among pre-Islamic Arabs. There are certain narratives (hadith) that imply that for sometime, even the Prophet (pbuh) did not prohibit such a relationship. On the other hand, certain other narratives are held as evidence to the fact that the Prophet (pbuh) did not prohibit such a relationship at all, it was prohibited, later on – after the death of the Prophet – by the second caliph, `Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra).
The Qur’an does not support this view. According to the very initial Surahs (chapters) of the Qur’an, like Surah Al-Mominun and Surah Al-Ma`arij the Qur’an specifically disallows all sexual relationships, besides that which are based on Nikah or that which were between a master and his slave girl1. The Qur’an says:
It must be remembered here that a Mut`ah relationship makes a woman neither a wife nor a slave girl of a person, whereas the Qur’an specifically restricts sexual relationships of a person with these two. It should be noticed that the particular word used by the Qur’an in the referred verse translated as "wives" is "azwaj" plural of "zaujah". In the classical Arabic language, a woman with whom a person had entered into a contract of Mut`ah was called the "Mamtu`ah" of the person, she was not referred to as the "zaujah" (wife) of the person. The verse, therefore is a clear evidence to the fact that no other relationship besides the one based on Nikah was allowed by Islam.
I hope this clarifies the issue.
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