Temporary Marriage (Mut’ah) and its abolition: (Bulūgh al-Marām) by Shaikh al-Fawzān

 وَعَنْ سَلَمَةَ بْنِ الْأَكْوَعِ – رضي الله عنه – قَالَ: رَخَّصَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ – صلى الله عليه وسلم – عَامَ أَوْطَاسٍ فِي الْمُتْعَةِ, ثَلَاثَةَ أَيَّامٍ, ثُمَّ نَهَى عَنْهَا. رَوَاهُ مُسْلِمٌ

وَعَنْ عَلَيٍّ – رضي الله عنه – قَالَ: نَهَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ – صلى الله عليه وسلم – عَنْ الْمُتْعَةِ عَامَ خَيْبَرَ. مُتَّفَقٌ عَلَيْهِ

996: Salamah Ibn Al-Akwa’ (radiyallaahu ‘anhu) said:

“In the year of the battle at Awtās the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) allowed mut’ah (temporary) marriage for three days – and then he forbade it thereafter.”  

Muslim no. 1405.

997 – 1: Narrated ‛Alee (radiyallaahu ‘anhu) that:

“Allāh’s Messenger (ﷺ) forbade mut‛ah in the year of the battle of Khaibar.”  

Bukhāree (4216, 5524) and Muslim (1407).

997 – 2: Narrated ‛Alee (radiyallaahu ‘anhu) that:

“Allāh’s Messenger (ﷺ) forbade temporary marriage with women, and the eating of the meat of the domestic donkey on the day of the battle of Khaibar.”  

Reported by the seven except Abu Dawood: (Bukhāree, 4216; Muslim, 1407; Ibn Mājah, 1961; At-Tirmidhee, 1121; An-Nasā’ee, 6/126, 7/202; Ahmad, 592)

997 – 3: Narrated Rabee’ Ibn Sabrah from his father that Allāh’s Messenger (ﷺ) said:

“I used to permit for you temporary marriage with women. And Allāh has now forbidden that until the Day of Resurrection. So if anyone has any of these women, he should let her go. And you are not to take back anything of what you have given them [as dowry or gifts].”

Reported by Muslim, 1406; Abu Dawood, 2072; An-Nasā’ee, 6/126; Ibn Mājah, 1962; Ahmad, 15345; and Ibn Hibbān, 4147.   

Shaikh Sālih al-Fawzān (hafidhahullāh) said:

All of these narrations are concerning the forbiddance of temporary marriage (mut’ah); it is from the invalid types of marriage.

Mut’ah: is that a man marries a woman for a fixed known term – so when this fixed term comes to an end, so does the marriage contract without the need for the pronouncement of talāq (divorce). This type of marriage did not obligate maintenance, nor ascription of any children to the husband, nor inheritance – it was from the types of marriage in the days of pre-Islamic ignorance. 

Thereafter, the Prophet (ﷺ) forbade it in the year of the battle of Khaibar, in the seventh year after the Hijrah, before the conquest of Makkah and after the treaty of Hudaibiyah. So he forbade it during the battle of Khaibar, and he forbade eating the meat of the domestic donkey.

Then at the battle of Awtās, and that is the battle of Hunain in the eighth year after the Hijrah, he permitted Mut’ah for just three days. The Prophet (ﷺ) encountered the Hawāzin tribe in the valley of Hunain and fighting broke out between them. Allāh aided the Muslims. The remaining forces of the Hawāzin moved to a place called Awtās that is near Tā’if. So the Prophet (ﷺ) sent after them a fighting force under the leadership of Abu ‛Āmir Al-Ash‛aree – and Allāh aided him against them.

So he permitted for them: meaning allowed them an affair that was forbidden, whilst upholding the underlying reasons for its prohibition, and for an outweighing benefit at that time – so he allowed it in that time, in that year, then he forbade it forever.

So the affair of temporary marriage went through three stages:

Firstly, the Prophet forbade it, then he permitted it, then he forbade it forever. And the scholars have a consensus that the mut’ah marriage is invalid – and that its permissibility was only a short-lived allowance and then it was abrogated. And no one allowed it thereafter except the Rāfidah and no one pays attention to their opposition. So this is the mut’ah nikāh, and this is its ruling in Islam. So whoever makes it permissible is an unbeliever due to him making permissible that which is forbidden by consensus. 

Adapted from volume 4, no. 996-997 (English, 848 to 851), Kitābun-Nikāh (The Book of Marriage) from Shaikh Sālih al-Fawzān’s explanation of Bulūgh Al-Marām min Adillatil-Ahkām of Al-Hāfidh Ahmad Ibn ‘Ali Ibn Hajr Al-Asqalāni (born 773H, died 852H), entitled Tas-heel al-Ilmām bi-fiqhil-Ahādeeth min Bulūghil-Marām and is printed in seven volumes.