Home Page
Back to Index

Introduction of Islam
The Marriage in Islam

Marriage as an Essential Institution

Top

Marriage is almost the duty of every Muslim unless obstacle by special health reasons. Islam encourages and urges men to marry. Every Muslim who can support a wife should get married, because marriage leaves little room for misbehavior. Marriage, according to Islam, is the fundamental institution which aims at establishing the family, the first unity of society. And thus marriage is a sacred institution that must be protected from any harm. 

Marriage in Islam partly aims at the multiplication of human race. Further, as we know, all psychologists and sociologists agree that the best place for the growth of a child is his family. That is why Islam encourages marriage and protects family against all forms of corruption in order to develop the psychological health of men, women, and children. Without marriage, there would be no family; without the family, there would be no psychologically-balanced human life for adults or children.

Islam emphasizes man-woman relations through marriage only. Free love is against all revealed religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In societies where free love is practice have more social and family problems. If we look at societies that practice free love, we notice that free love has not achieved happiness. The society of free love has more cases of divorce, more fatherless and motherless infants, more crimes related to or caused by sexual motives, more rape crimes and more suicidal cases.

It is not without a reason that the human female is the only female in the animal kingdom that has a virginity membrane. This virginity membrane is created by Allah because it has a social function, i.e., the legality of sexual intercourse through the legal institution of marriage. Islam develops in the believer the qualities of patience, sacrifice, and loyalty. The general rule with Muslims is that a man and his wife live together until the end of one of their lives. Continuous loyalty is the general rule. Both the husband and the wife devote themselves to each other and to the children and this devotion continues until the end.

The children of today are the men and women of tomorrow. In other words, Islam looks upon marriage not only as a relationship that concerns husband and wife, but also as an institution that has a great effect on the structure of the whole nation, because marriage is the essence of the family, which is the essence of the society.

Prohibited Marriages

Top

Islam forbids a man to marry his mother, daughter, sister, paternal aunt, maternal aunt, brother's daughter, sister's daughter, foster-sister, wife's mother, son's wife, step-daughter, foster mother or a non-Muslim. Islam also forbids having as wives two sisters together or a wife and her aunt. It is also prohibited to marry for a limited period.

And do not marry a non-believing till they believe ..... (Quran 2:221) 

And marry not women whom your fathers married, except what has already passed; indeed it was shameful and most hateful, and an evil way. (Quran 4:22)

Forbidden to you are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your father's sisters, your mother's sisters, your brother's daughters, your sister's daughters, your foster mother who gave you suck, your foster milk suckling sisters, your wives' mothers, your steps-daughter under your guardianship, born of your wives to whom you have gone in - but there is no sin on you if you have not gone in them, - the wives of your sons who from your own loins, and two sisters in wedlock at the same time, except for what has already passed; verily, Allah is Oft forgiving, Most Merciful.   (Quran 4:23) 

Marriage Conditions

Top

The first condition of the marriage in Islam is consent of husband and wife. In Islam, the man has the right to choose his wife and the woman has the right to choose her husband. Of course, a young girl might not have enough experience to choose the right man; therefore, the advice of her father or guardian has its justification. But no father or guardian has the right to force a girl to get married to a man whom she does not want to get married to. In other words, In Islam, the consent of the woman to marry a certain man is essential. 

O you who believe! You are forbidden to inherit women against their will ..... (Quran 4:19)

The second condition of the marriage in Islam is that the husband must pay the dowry (Mahr) to his wife. The reasons behind the husband's paying a dowry are many. firstly, the dowry is a symbol that stands for the seriousness of the husband in this marriage contract. Secondly, the dowry stands as a proof that this man is financially capable to form a family and shoulder all coming responsibilities of housing and taking care of his wife and children. Thirdly, the dowry, especially the deferred dowry, stands as an obstacle in the way of divorce and makes the husband think twice and thrice before divorcing his wife.

The husband gives the wife a dowry specified in the marriage contract and this dowry, i. e., the free gift, is paid to the wife at the time of contracting the marriage. The amount of the dowry in Islam depends on the financial ability of the husband and on the social position of the wife. In many cases, the dowry in Islam is divided into two parts: a hastened dowry and a deferred dowry. The hastened dowry is paid when contracting marriage and the deferred dowry is paid upon the death of the husband or divorce.

The third condition is the publicity of marriage. Marriage in Islam should be made known to the public and it is this publicity that differentiates marriage from fornication. To secure publicity, there should be witnesses at the contracting of the marriage. A special sermon is cited publicly to publicize marriage and explain to the husband and the wife and the audience the rights and duties of each side.

Fourth condition is the witness. I n Islam the general principle is to have witnesses for any kind of contract. So for marriage contract too, it requires witness usually from both the parties. They also sign on the marriage contract as witness.

The Marriage of a Divorced or a Widow Woman

Top

A divorced women or widow is allowed to marry in Islam. A divorced woman or a widow in Islam must wait for a certain period before she gets married to another man. A divorced pregnant woman cannot get married before giving birth. One reason for these regulations is to avoid any confusion that may arise concerning the father of any probable embryo.

Polygamy in Islam

Top

Islam prefers men to have one wife, but to avoid adultery or for several other reasons, a person is allowed to marry maximum up to four. But it is allowed only with the condition that he will treat them equally and justly. 

....marry women of your choice, two or three or four but if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly then only one ......... (Quran 4:3)

There could be several reasons for polygamy in Islam.

Polygamy and War

It happens in many countries throughout the world that the number of females exceeds the number of males. This phenomenon is especially clear in countries involved in war. Actually, if we look back at history, we rarely find that a day has passed without some kind of war taking place somewhere in this world. Let us look at our world now. Everyday we hear of the death of hundreds of men here and there in areas of military tension in the world. The case being ,o, it is better for a girl to have half a husband than have no husband at all.

Polygamy and Widows

The death of men at wars creates thousands of widows and fatherless children The natural life of these widows and fatherless children is the home-life. which is certainly better than social asylums. This is another justification for polygamy.

Polygamy and Sensual Men

There are some cases of sensual men. It is better for the society to allow such a man to marry another wife than to force him to commit adultery. This is a third justification for polygamy.

Polygamy and a Sick Wife

It may happen that a man has a chronically diseased wife. It i5 better to allow this man to have a second wife than to force him to divorce his first wife in order to marry another woman. 

To allow a man to have more than one wife is better than to allow him to have sexual relations through free love or houses of prostitution.

Polygamy and Death of Males

Even in the state of peace, men die at accidents more frequently than women owing to the different nature of their work. This means that females will exceed males in number. Again, polygamy helps in finding a solution to this problem.

Being a religion for all peoples in all times and all places, Islam bases its legislation on all probabilities. Without polygamy, how can a country that has lost two million men in a war solve the problem of two million women who have no chance to have husbands. Islam emphasizes home-life very strongly and sees it as the healthiest way of living.

Polygamy as the Exception

There is another important point to mention here. Polygamy is not the rule; polygamy is the exception. The usual thing that a Muslim does is to marry one wife. No Muslim marries a second wife unless he has a good reason to do so because he knows that the second wife means more financial problems, more social pressure, ,more physical effort, and more problems with both the first wife ,and the second wife.

Polygamy and Fair Treatment of Wives

Islam puts a condition on polygamy: the husband should treat his wives justly and equally in terms of housing, expenses, clothes, food, and his living with them.

Islam secures the right of the first wife, who has the right to require a condition in the marriage contract to be divorced if a second wife is added. Of course, the second wife knows that he is married and chooses freely to be a second wife. This means that polygamy takes place with the agreement of all persons involved, i e the husband, the new wife, and. in some cases, the old wife.