MUTAH OR TEMPORARY MARRIAGE IN MUSLIM SOCIETY

Author: Dr. R. Brahmachari on Saturday, January 26, 2008

By Dr. Radhasyam Brahmachari

One is really shocked to read the news (HINDU VOICE- Jan, 2007) that a 60 year old wealthy
Arab married 3 girls, Afreen, Farheena and Sultana, at a single sitting (within ten minutes), in
Hyderabad. Though unbelievable, such incidents are not uncommon in Muslim community and
only a few of such incidents come to surface. Furthermore, as the Koran allows polygamy and
permits a Muslim male to marry 4 wives at a time, the said 60 year old Arab groom could have
comfortably added a fourth girl to his list of brides without violating the laws ordained by
Almighty and All-knowing Allah. Islamic law or sharia permits two kinds of marriages, nikah
and mutah. The former does not allow marrying more than 4 wives at a time, while mutah does
not impose any such restrictions on the number of wives. So the said Arab could have made his
list of brides still longer and married all of them at a single sitting without violating sharia, as his
marriages were mutahs. Moreover, mutah marriage is temporary and remains valid only for a
few weeks, or a few days, or even a few hours. And hence it is simply prostitution in the garb of
a marriage. The fabulously rich, mostly aged, Arabs from the Gulf countries come to India, get
access to young girls of Hyderabad by temporary marriage of mutah, of course by paying fat
cash to their parents as dowry (mehr), use them and return home as the marriage automatically
dissolves after the stipulated time. A specific case of such an incident may be narrated below.

In May 2004, an old man called Muhammad Zafer Yaqub Hassan al Jorani came from Sharjah to
Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, to undergo a cataract operation. On May 7, he married
Haseena Begum, a 19 year old girl and after two days he divorced her. On May 24, he married
another 16 year old girl Ruksana Begum. Haseena, ignoring even threat to her life, went to a
local police station to narrate her story and within an hour police arrested Jorani. Police also
arrested someone called Shamsuddin who was alleged to have played the part of a mediator and
received a cash of Rs 40,000 from Jorani and handed over the money to the parents of Haseena
as mehr. It is to be mentioned here that Jorani, at his Sharjah residence, had two wives and 11
children.

By interrogating Jorani, police could discover that after a few days, Jorani also divorsed Ruksana
and married a third girl. But neither Ruksana nor the third girl dared to report their affairs to the
police and hence no step could be taken for those offences. By interrogating Shamsuddin, police
also discovered that a criminal gang and a group of qazis (Islamic judges) of Hyderabad were
involved in this lucrative flesh trade. The role of the qazis was to solemnise the marriages
according to Islamic rites in exchange of lucrative remuneration. Police also arrested Ahmed
Sharif, the qazi who conducted Haseena’s marriage with Jorani. Further investigation revealed
that Ahmed Sharif acted simply as an assistant of a chief qazi, who had nearly 20 subordinate
qazis under his command.

In fact, the task of this team of qazis and criminals starts right from Hyderabad’s Rajib Gandhi
International Airport and as soon as an Arab lands at the airport, mediators begin to chase him
with photographs of young girls, finalise the monetary matters, fixing the date and place of
marriage and so on. All such marriages are temporary marriage called mutah in Islamic law or
sharia and lasts for a few weeks, or a few days, or even a few hours. Investigation revealed that
there were 35 to 40 such incidents of mutahs occur per year between rich Arabs and young girls
in Hyderabad. Many of these Arabs took there newly wed brides to there home abroad, where for
the rest of their lives they were forced to live as a house maid or a concubine or simply sex
slaves. While commenting over all these affairs, Mr A K Khan, the Additional Commissioner of
Hyderabad Police, said, “It is very difficult to stop all these illegal activities with the help of law.
What we can do is to observe such fabulously rich Arabs closely so that their illicit activities
could be checked.

The real significance of the above comments of Mr Khan is that, the said temporary marriages
between the rich Arabs and the unfortunate Indian girls are sanctified by a section of believers,
and as, in addition to that, Islamic law allows polygamy, it is not possible for the law enforcing
authorities to bring the offenders behind the bar. Legal action can only be taken when the girl in
question is below eighteen. In Islam, marriage is simply a social contract and the paper that
contains all the terms and conditions of this social contract, is called nikahnama. The central
point of a nikahnama is the mehr, or the cash which the groom will have to pay the bride if he
divorces her. Men on the groom’s side try to minimise the mehr, while kin of the bride try their
best to inflate it. Finally, after tough bargaining, a compromise is made.

According to Islamic law, only the husband enjoys the right to divorce his wife, while the wife is
always at the receiving end. The Principle of Mohmedan Law by Mr M Hidyatullah (Tripathy
(1980), p-324), in this regard, says, “Whenever the husband utters the word talaq thrice, the
divorce becomes effective at that instant, irrespective of place and time”. The Koran, on this
aspect, says, “Ye may divorce your wives twice; and then either retain them with humanity, or
dismiss them with kindness. But it is not lawful for you to take away anything of what ye have
given them, unless both fear that they cannot observe the ordinances of Allah. And if ye fear that
they cannot observe the ordinances of Allah, it shall be no crime in either of them on account of
that for which the wife shall redeem herself. … But if the husband divorces her a third time, she
shall not be lawful for him again, until she marry another husband. But if he also divorces her, it
shall be no crime in them if they return to each other, if they think they can observe the
ordinances of Allah. ,,, “ [II: 229,230 – tr by George Sale (word God replaced by Allah)].

So the husband, according to the Koranic injunction, has the right to drive his wife out of his
house, like a domestic animal, by uttering the word talaq thrice and at such an instant, as
mentioned above, the husband has to pay the money written as mehr in the nikahnama. It should
be pointed out here that all these Koranic laws are for nikah alone. For mutah, the contract itself
is temporary and dies after a stipulated time, which may either be a few weeks, or a few days, or
even a few hours and hence there is no need for the husband to divorce his wife. But if the
husband wants to get rid of her within the stipulated time, he will have to divorce her as in the
case of a nikah.

Though there is no verse in the Koran where Allah directly permits the believers to enter into
temporary marriage with the Muslim womwn, the hadith no. 3243 of the Muslim Sharif says,
“Abdullah bin Mas’ud reports: ‘We were on an expedition with Allah’s Messenger and we had
no woman with us. We said: Should we not have ourselves castrated? The Holy Prophet forbade
us to do so. He then granted us permission that we should contract temporary marriage (with
local women) for a stipulated period giving her a garment (for a dowry)’. At this ‘Abdulla felt
happy and remembered the Koranic verse: The believers, do not make unlawful the good things
which Allah has made lawful for you, and do not transgress. Allah do not like transgressors (V:
87)”.

A similar hadith of the Muslim Sharif says, “Jabir reports: ‘We contracted temporary marriage
giving a handful of dates and flour as a dower’ (3249)”. A few other ahadith of the Muslim Sharif
may be mentioned in this context. “Jabir reports, ‘Yes, we had been benefiting ourselves by this
temporary marriage during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet, and during the time of Abu Bakr and
Umar’ (3248)”. “Iyas bin Salama reports, on the authority of his father, ‘that Allah’s Messenger
gave sanction for contracting temporary marriage for three nights in the year of Autas (i.e. after
the Battle of Hunain, A.H. 8) and then forbade it’ (3251).

Regarding this Mutah marriage, T. P. Hughes in his Dictionary of Islam writes that Mut’ah or
Usufruct (enjoyment) is “A marriage contracted for a limited period, for a certain sum of money.
Such marriages are still legal amongst the Shi’ahs, and exist in Persia to the present day, but they
are said to be unlawful by the Sunnis. They were permitted by the Arabian Prophet at Autas, and
are undoubtedly the greatest stain upon his moral legislation; but the Sunnis say that he
afterwards prohibited a mut’ah marriage at Khaibar (Rupa & co, 2007, pp-424). The Shi’ahs
argue that the Koranic verse (IV: 24), that says, “Ye are also forbidden to take to wife free
woman who are married, except those women whom your right hand shall possess as slaves. This
is ordained for you from Allah. Whatever is beside this, is allowed (for) you; that ye may with
your substance provide wives for yourselves, acting that which is right, and avoiding whoredom.
And for the advantage (cohabitation) which ye receive from them, give them their reward (i.e.
dowry), according to what is ordained: but it shall be no crime in you to make any other
agreement among yourselves, after the ordinance shall be complied with; for Allah is knowing
and wise”, as Allah’s sanction for contracting mut’ah or temporary marriage.

So in the eye of Islamic jurisprudence, Hassan al Jorani perhaps committed no crime by entering
into a contract of temporary marriage (mutah) by paying Rs 40,000 as mehr to the parents of
Haseena. On the contrary, his act was once made lawful by the Holy Prophet. But the Prophet
had missed one point- during his lifetime, marrying off minor girls was not illegal. And hence the
Prophet committed no crime by marrying Ayesha at the age of 52, when Ayesha was a child of 6.
But the wisdom of the Prophet failed to foresee that in future, man himself would make laws and
ban marrying minor girls. In India today, marrying a minor girl of below 18 is a criminal offence,
and in the eye of law it is simply a rape. And the practice of mutah or marrying off a minor girl,
in Muslim community, is nothing but an offence of forcing a minor girl to prostitution.

So it becomes evident that, coming of rich Arabs to India and marrying young Indian girls is
simply a kind of prostitution. Sir W. Muir, the renowned biographer of Prophet Muhammad, also
held the same view about mutah. Furthermore, since a nikah can also be dissolved at any time by
uttering talaq thrice, he also considered even nikah as another kind of prostitution and the mehr
as the other name of the fee for hiring a prostitute.
It may be pointed out here that the illegal prostitution which is going on in Hyderabad in the garb
of marriage or mutah, began nearly 16 years ago, in 1991, when an 11 year old girl, called Amina
Begum, was forcibly married to a nearly 70 years old Arab. Much hue and cry was raised when
news came up in the media and as a result, the vice came to a temporary halt, only to restart
again at full swing after a few months. While commenting over the affair, Mr Majhar Hussain,
the president of the Confederation of Voluntary Agencies, an NGO, said, “This (the Islamic
system of temporary marriage) is turning the young Muslim girls into prostitutes”.

There is no doubt that in any civilized society, the said Islamic practice of temporary marriage
would be taken simply as rape or prostitution. At the same time, in the eye of law, there must be
a difference between raping a minor child and a grown up woman. In Indian Penal Code (IPC),
offence of rape comes under the article 375, but unfortunately there is no provision in the said
article to treat raping a child and a grown up woman on different footings. Many believe that,
there should be harsher laws to tackle the heinous crime like raping a minor girl with the
provision of more rigorous punishment, even sentence to death. There is no doubt that the
introduction of harsher laws would frighten the illegal traffickers and relieve the minor girls of
Hyderabad, to some extent, from the sexual oppression of the rich Arabs of the Middle East.