Temporary Marriage in Islam

Get rid of these perverse Islamic tendencies like Muta. Please sign this petition. Islamic fundamentalism epidemic has killed far too many people and gone on for a few centuries too many without decent humans doing something about it. Now is your chance. The next step will be for the UN to push all Islamic countries to legistlate these into their respective constitutions, or face sanctions.


MUSLIM MANIFESTO: Like men, women should have the right to decide how they will live, dress, travel, marry and divorce; if they do not enjoy these rights, they are clearly second-class citizens.

MUSLIM MANIFESTO: All critiques of Islam should be countered not by threats and violence, but by rational counter-argument

MUSLIM MANIFESTO: We strongly denounce anti-Semitism. We accept Israel`s right to exist.

MUSLIM MANIFESTO: We accept the legitimacy of the secular state and the secular law. Islamic law, or sharia, was developed at a time when Muslims were living in homogenous communities. In the modern world, virtually all societies are pluralistic, consisting of different faiths and of different perceptions of each faith, including Islam. In this pluralistic setting, a legal system based on a particular version of a single religion cannot be imposed on all citizens.

MUSLIM MANIFESTO: We support and cherish democracy — not because we reject the sovereignty of the Almighty over people, but because we believe that this sovereignty is manifested in the general will of people in a democratic and pluralistic society. We do not accept theocratic rule

MUSLIM MANIFESTO: we cherish religious liberty. Every human has the right to believe or not to believe in Islam or in any other religion All Muslims furthermore have the right to reject and change their religion if desired

Read the complete manifesto and sign the petition here:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/akyol_baran200603010816.asp

Re: # 189 zeemax

salaam

i apologize for not commenting on your article actually i am quiet busy with my job. and promise to send you soon my comments. let me tell you that i am not someone expert on commenting those intricate issues but a penchant to find the truth and follow it.

it is worth mentioning here that you are quiet specific and breif in your thought processing. and it shows your clearness about such issues.

ghulam haider

#188 by haider5

Thanks for your detailed response. However, my question was fundamental in nature, basically, on the implications of the manner and choice of succession of the Prophet, on the entire Islamic history and development of their thought process.

I had posted the following interact, and got accused of reading too much Shia literature. But I haven`t. It`s just a thesis.

What are your comments?

The decision about whether Islam was a peaceful spiritual movement, or a militant-political one was made long ago on the actual day of Muhammad (S) death. The question was whether the successor should be a spiritual one to maintain the `message` or a politically expedient temporal one with the suitable skills and social status. It was decided that the eternal spiritual message had been completed and now it was time to consolidate and expand with a temporal successor. So Abu Bakr was nominated. Ali may have been the spritual choice being `Ahl-e-Bait` but none of the Ahl-e-Bait were invited to be on the selecting committee. So the choice was made. Even the Ansaar of Medina, the die-hard loyalists of Muhammad (S) were sidelined in the process and continued to be sidelined but remained faithful anyway right till the end to whomever was the Caliph. None of them betrayed any of the Khulfa-e-Rashideen when many of the prophet`s own companions of Quraish from post-Fatah Mecca period did so.

There are many conflicting traditions as to which future path Muhammad (S) himself might have taken, or whether he was prevented or sabotaged from naming a successor on his death bed. So we can only carry on from the beginning of the Caliphates.

Abu Bakr consolidated Arabia and put down apostacies, Umar expanded into ALL neighbouring regions of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Persia, Palestine etc and brought an end to the Sassanids and the Byzantines hold. Usman got hold of regions across the seas like Cyprus and Rhodes before falling to internal conflicts. Ali fell prey to the repercussions of Usman`s assasination and largely had a failure of a caliphate full of betrayals by the most trusted and saw his empire shrinking till his violent end. Hassan abdicated in favour of Muwai`ya and Hussain was beheaded by Muwi`yas son Yazeed. That was the end of any spiritual message to be conveyed further. All the Ahl-e-Bait had been summarily dealt with.

R
Salaam Mr/Miss zeemax

you are an economist and I can understand that many principles of economics are based on suppositions and assumptions like the whole annual budget of a country is based on suppositions, therefore you people strongly believe in suppositions so I was not surprised by your supposedly situation.

I believe that in Islam and in many other religions there exist many suppositions. Like we are bound to believe in God whom we have never seen so we suppose that God exists (Imaan Bil Ghaib). being a Muslim there is no faith until we conceptually physically and by heart believe in the existence of God. Again we believe in judgment day which we have never seen any kind of such an event but this is part of our faith and we have to believe.

But in your case you at the end of your paragraph said it’s a serious question while in your first part you tried to suppose the situation. When we suppose we try to accumulate assumptive results relating to some non-existing or a thing which we have never seen or experienced, a tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences. While in case of question we try to doubt a thing which we or someone else have experienced or seen.

So first we have to decide whether we have to suppose the situation or to question the facts of history relating to this era.

By the way the thing in question was the temporary marriage.

Why I am trying to comment on this tricky and complex matter of Islam the reason behind it is that things I read in the article of Mr. Gill was not matching to the facts I read. Frankly saying if someone comes to me and asks me to give my daughter for Muttah purpose surely it will ignite my anger. But we cannot say a thing wrong or right merely because it was against the norms of society in which I am living or which actually teases me. We being Muslims should study that thing and then in the light of Quran hadith and imamate come to some decision.

Truly saying when I take Muttah personally I feel uncomfortable with this concept and many questions starts hovering around me but when I come to know that our Prophet (PBUH) allowed this form of marriage then I without any question try to accept it. Because my Prophet (PBUH) told about God whom I have never seen but believed in. My Prophet told that I went to Miraj (when Prophet went to meet Allah on the Horse Burraq) and I without any hesitation accepted. Let me tell you that there are many things in Islam which seems strict and barbarian but somehow they are blessing in disguise. Take the example of rigorous sentence of Zina in which Hadd is involved. As per Hadd laws if a married man and a woman found guilty of zina they are sentenced to stone till death, provided there are four major eyewitnesses after being gone through Tazkia-tushshood. Eyewitness is a witness who has seen the whole scene going on in front of his eyes. looks very inhuman prima facie thinking why the eyewitnesses did not stop them doing this rather they kept on watching it(sounds logical) or if both the man and woman were willing to do this act then why such an inhuman nature of sentence. These things also disturbed me (during my LL.B) but when I studied logic behind this and other Islamic sentences the things starts getting clearer in my mind. The logic behind this rigorous punishment is that a society should not come at such a critical point that zina becomes so much public that four people could not be able to stop it and could eyewitness it, thereby saving a society from the curse of God.

Zina is a sin (gunnah-e-kabeera) though committed in private or public but when it occurs in privacy then the matter is between you and God but if committed publicly then the society gets involve and it will attract rigorous punishments of Islam.

So we have to see and look through the Mutta its logical and practical implications in the light of quran and hadith and then we should come to some conclusions. It might be or might be not a blessing in disguise.

There are some facts about the Mutta which are briefly explained in the paragraphs and a little introduction of Mutta:

1-Fixed-Term/Temporary/Pleasure Marriage are different names for the Arabic word of ``Mut`a`` which is a contract between a man and woman, much in the same way the Long-Term/Permanent/Conventional Marriage is. The main difference is that the temporary marriage longs only for a specified period of time, and man and woman will become stranger to each other after the expiration date without divorce. One misconception regarding temporary marriage is that some people think that the woman engaged in temporary marriage can have contract every other hour. This is completely misrepresentation of temporary marriage. After such contract has been expired, the woman has to wait for two months (Iddah) before which she can not marry any one else.

Therefore if someone thinks it is equal to prostitution then he is wrong because one has to observe iddah period. And how a prostitute can wait for such a long period after having Mutta. She will bear loss if she starts observing Mutta in its true and legislative sense.

2-By the legislative measures of Mutta, it is Harram for a married man or woman whose spouse is accessible for sexual purposes.

3-Marriage is preferred in Islam over Mutta. Because there is permission for four marriages at a same time, provided one could do justice with all of his wives.

4-It is allowed under strict conditions.

5-It was observed during the life of Prophet (PBUH)

6-Purpose of Mutta is solely ones satisfaction of sexual needs.


Note

When I feel I am wrong then I accept it.
e: # 187

#186 by haider5

Haider .. tell me ... let`s suppose Ali had not been martyred, and Ahl-e-Bait had full support as caliphs and had continued in command with full authoriity, what would have been different? This a serious question ....

salam to everyone

i am really shocked to read articles containing religious matters, specially reading the article on temporary marriage by Mr. Gill.

sorry to say Mr. Gill that your aricle is not well researched and lacks indepth analysis the way you do in your other articles. i am also a minor and unnoticed student of islam and the message of islam. what i found on this going is that first you should understand the life of prophet (PBUH) and his followers including Prophets Family specially Ali then come to some conclusion on typical islamic matters, because all rationale behind Quran is found in their practical lives. as far as temporary marriage is concerned you should understand its importance and causes why it was allowed. to be continued.................

#182 by WaleedShah #184 by AikThought

Both of you are delusional in your zeal. Slavery was not only in the prophet`s time but continued during the khilafat-e-rashida and beyond as well. I don`t know who banned it. Do you? Fornication was ok too as long as it was with a slave woman, even if she was married. Muta`ah was widely practiced during the prophet`s time and banned only by Umar which is controversial because it was without religious authority. Halala is morally wrong because if discouraging divorce is the motive, then what`s the wife`s fault in being raped by someone for a night before going back? It`s the husband who should be raped by a black slave or something for giving a wrongful divorce and inflicting mental torture on the wife ...

According to Mr WaleedShah

1. Mohammad Gill has only degrees but is not educated neither enlightened. He also thinks that Mr Gill is confused and he does not know enough about islam. This makes Mr WaleedShah sad.

2. Slavery was a norm and Islam started a gradual change. It may have been allowed according to Quran and Hadith at that time but is banned now.

3. Mutah is not islamic as it is not mentioned in either quran or hadith

4. Halala is there to discourage divorce.

5. If we do not follow a religion, we should not find flaws in it either.

Mr. Gill works in the Detroit Water and ***Sewerage Department***, Detroit, and hold the position of Assistant General Superintendent of Engineering.

Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all :-D)

I read all your ``waste of time`` through and through and could not help but laugh at your ignorance towards this subject, Not to mention that I felt sorry for your sad excuse of showing your hatred towards islam. It is VERY saddening that people like you have degrees to show but they really never get educated. The subject you chose required ALOT of research and if you HAD done any, you wouldn`t be sitting writing this *article*. Mohammad Gill? Interesting name I must say! But then it DOES explain that you are confused about your OWN identity and that completely explains that a complete piece of garbage would come from a confused personality such as yourself.

*SLAVERY*
The matter of slave girls. Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all), Kindly refer to history to find out that slavery is not something that was introduced by islam NOR it was something that was encouraged by islam. If you read history, you will find out that during those times human rights was never even a consideration. We are talking about an era where girls were buried alive and wars on the smallest of disputes would go on for years. An era which was dark, cruel and where might is right was the order of the day. Let us also consider that islam came during that era and the followers of islam were HUMANS who had lived under and by the dark and sick customs of that time. When we talk about HUMANS do note that every human has a psyche and it has to be moulded slowly and can NOT be pushed into something. If normal human beings had no rights, what rights would slaves have!? Slavery was a business and slaves could be BOUGHT in the open market like you can buy vegetables today.

Imagine YOU are spawned in that era as a girl who is being sold to a master who does NOT know about ANY sort of human rights let alone slave rights. Imagine being used by your master for his desires and by his friends and your other fellow slaves for their desires, all this time NO ONE to hear your woes and cries and NO ONE to give you ANY rights. Not a pretty picture eh, Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all)?

Now imagine being slave to a kind master who feeds you well, keeps you well and NO ONE can touch you, over burden you or disrespect you. Where your master`s friends can NOT use you for their desires. Where you are NOT going to be sold again but you WILL BE set free? Somewhat of a pretty picture, don`t you think so Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all)?

Since I talked about human psyche and how pushing a human being can ONLY break them.
Allow me to tell you or rather try and educate you where and how does it apply here. If you read earlier, all the new followers as islam was a new relegion were living a life where might is right and everything goes. To mould those followers to a level where they would start respecting human beings as human being and stop burrying their young females, Islam adopted the approach of educating them into submission rather than PUSHING them into submission. Allah could create the world in a blink of an eye as he is more than capable of, may be you didn`t know that too! Let`s just say that I told you and this should be enough. So yea, he could but he didn`t? Ever wondered why? In everything he does and he did he gave US humans some lessons. He did everything in steps and he wants us to follow the same path.

It is HUMANLY impossible to change in one night. Key word here Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all) is HUMANLY. It is TOTALLY against a *human`s* psyche to be doing and following a pattern for a life time and then completely go against in just one day. So islam started educating them by first giving slaves rights. Rights to good food, good clothes, good treatment and a good place to live. Rights to medicine and medical care by their masters. What is islamic ruling now on slavery? It is BANNED. Howcome it is banned now and was allowed then? Simple Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all), everything was done in slow, simple and smooth steps where people got educated and they didn`t even feel that they were leaving their way of life.

*MUTAH or PAID LEGAL SEX or TEMPORARY MARRIAGE*
Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all), Here I really have to ask you a question. Did you get too many degrees? Did you attend college/university this much that so much of education took away your ability to think straight? I am very much bemused at the way you think and why would you even write such an article WITHOUT any sort of research. Let me come to the point here.

First thing you need to *learn* is, What is islam? What does it teach? WHERE do muslims get these teachings from? Very VERY basic information this is! Islam is based on Quran and Hadeeth. Quran is the word of Allah and Hadeeth is the practical implementation of the word of Allah through his prophet Muhmmad (Sulla Allah ho Alayhay Wasalam). Anything OUT of these two, and contradicting these two is NOT islam. Now PLEASE, show me any hadeeth (practical demonstration & implementation) and ANY verse of Quran where MUTAH is allowed? Look you may for the rest of your life but you will NOT find one! You know why? Simple reason Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all), Islam does NOT allow paid legal or free sex for that matter. I insist that you read how I defind islam to you again and that will clear alot of complications you DO have about islam.

*HALALA*
The points raised in your article only show your ignorance, confusion and utter lack of knowledge on the subject you wrote the article on. I am sold on the idea that you do NOT know islam and anything about this relegion. Sadly you come out as a person who do NOT have the guts to live a life liked and chosen by Allah and you are just trying to give excuses by *trying* to find flaws in this beautiful and highly balanced way of life. Kindly understand the CONCEPT of halala and WHY is halala even there in the first place. Islam considers divorce as the most DISLIKED allowed act by Allah. At times when you DONT like an action but IS allowed because it is a matter of choice, you put up stipulations to get your message across that this action is NOT liked. You put up such HARD and UNREASONABLE stipulations that would STOP you from taking that action. Again, in islam divorce IS considered as THE MOST DISLIKED actions.

As far as divorce itself goes, you can NOT divorce your wife in one go! Again! Islam DISLIKES divorces, WHY would it allow divorce in one go just because you got so angry that you lost all ability to think? Procedure of a divorce is, If you said TALAQ once, you will HAVE TO WAIT for forty days MORE to give the SECOND TALAQ and then forty days MORE to give the THIRD one. Why so many days? Since islam dislikes and discourages divorce, these many days are mendatory between talaqs so that the anger subsides and the person can think with a cool head. Motive? To make sure there is NO divorce at the end of the day!

Now, Let us talk about Halala. If you divorced your wife and want to re-marry her, she will need to get married to another guy, have sex with her and get divorced by him first. Agreed! VERY true! This IS the way it is. BUT! There are some very fine details that you totally missed. The last part that she has to get divorced first, add this; The guy she gets married to, IF divorces her by HIS FREE will and ***NOT under an ALREADY DECIDED UPON AGREEMENT*** only THEN she can re-marry her ex-husband! Makes sense? I am sure it still did NOT make sense to you. Word of *education*, Read it again!

Why halala? It is a path that no one with self respect and honor would want to take. Such a strict stipulation is there just to DISCOURAGE divorce. How many people would divorce after understanding this stipulation? NOT MANY Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all). Would you?

*Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all)*

Let me turn my attention towards you now. Where are you getting your information from? Do you NOT look at both sides of the picture? I know why! Because you clearly believe that islam is a backward relegion as you have posted so very clearly in one of your replies. So what is your job again? Sewers? Explains where you get all these brilliant ideas from. I agree Gill, cleaning sewers can hamper your mental state. Why don`t you use the same tools and technology to clean out your head as well since that is where all the garbage is! Or may be, you clean detroit sewers and flush them in your head! Why do you even write articles at all? People like you make me really sad. Simply because you have a bias mind and bias thoughts that only can gush out biasness and nothing else. Next time when you refer to a verse from Quran, kindly give the verse number and chapter number. If you don`t know, kindly just do NOT put it up as a reference, you might only look less ignorant than you ACTUALLY are!

*EVERYONE*

To everyone, Educate yourselves about islam. Do NOT point fingers and post mindless, baseless accusations WITHOUT proper research. Know what relegion is all about and understand it. Once you do, words like extremism and fundamentalism will evaporate from your minds and you will understand what a blanced and beautiful way of life it really is. Respect other relegions and don`t point fingers or try to find flaws in them. If you don`t have guts to follow a relegion or you DO know that this certain relegion makes sense and still you don`t have guts to accept the fact, kindly refrain from pointing fingers. We are supposed to be *educating* each other by sharing GOOD hard earned knowledge, I believe this is the purpose of this website community. May God bless you all and keep all of us in good health.

Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all :-D)

I read all your ``waste of time`` through and through and could not help but laugh at your ignorance towards this subject, Not to mention that I felt sorry for your sad excuse of showing your hatred towards islam. It is VERY saddening that people like you have degrees to show but they really never get educated. The subject you chose required ALOT of research and if you HAD done any, you wouldn`t be sitting writing this *article*. Mohammad Gill? Interesting name I must say! But then it DOES explain that you are confused about your OWN identity and that completely explains that a complete piece of garbage would come from a confused personality such as yourself.

*SLAVERY*
The matter of slave girls. Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all), Kindly refer to history to find out that slavery is not something that was introduced by islam NOR it was something that was encouraged by islam. If you read history, you will find out that during those times human rights was never even a consideration. We are talking about an era where girls were buried alive and wars on the smallest of disputes would go on for years. An era which was dark, cruel and where might is right was the order of the day. Let us also consider that islam came during that era and the followers of islam were HUMANS who had lived under and by the dark and sick customs of that time. When we talk about HUMANS do note that every human has a psyche and it has to be moulded slowly and can NOT be pushed into something. If normal human beings had no rights, what rights would slaves have!? Slavery was a business and slaves could be BOUGHT in the open market like you can buy vegetables today. Imagine you are spawned in that era as a girl who is being sold to a master who does NOT know about ANY sort of human rights let alone slave rights. Imagine being used by your master for his desires and by his friends and your other fellow slaves for their desires, all this time NO ONE to hear your woes and cries and NO ONE to give you ANY rights. Not a pretty picture eh, Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all)?

Now imagine being slave to a kind master who feeds you well, keeps you well and NO ONE can touch you, over burden you or disrespect you. Where your master`s friends can NOT use you for their desires. Where you are NOT going to be sold again but you WILL BE set free? Somewhat of a pretty picture, don`t you think so Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all)? Since I talked about human psyche and how pushing a human being can ONLY break them.

Allow me to tell you or rather try and educate you where and how does it apply here. If you read earlier, all the new followers as islam was a new relegion were living a life where might is right and everything goes. To mould those followers to a level where they would start respecting human beings as human being and stop burrying their young females, Islam adopted the approach of educating them into submission rather than PUSHING them into submission. Allah could create the world in a blink of an eye as he is more than capable of, may be you didn`t know that too! Let`s just say that I told you and this should be enough. So yea, he could but he didn`t? Ever wondered why? In everything he does and he did he gave US humans some lessons. He did everything in steps and he wants us to follow the same path.

It is HUMANLY impossible to change in one night. Key word here Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all) is HUMANLY. It is TOTALLY against a *human`s* psyche to be doing and following a pattern for a life time and then completely go against in just one day. So islam started educating them by first giving slaves rights. Rights to good food, good clothes, good treatment and a good place to live. Rights to medicine and medical care by their masters. What is islamic ruling now on slavery? It is BANNED. Howcome it is banned now and was allowed then? Simple Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all), everything was done in slow, simple and smooth steps where people got educated and they didn`t even feel that they were leaving their way of life.

*MUTAH or PAID LEGAL SEX or TEMPORARY MARRIAGE*
Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all), Here I really have to ask you a question. Did you get too many degrees? Did you attend college/university this much that so much of education took away your ability to think straight? I am very much bemused at the way you think and why would you even write such an article WITHOUT any sort of research. Let me come to the point here.

First thing you need to *learn* is, What is islam? What does it teach? WHERE do muslims get these teachings from? Very VERY basic information this is! Islam is based on Quran and Hadeeth. Quran is the word of Allah and Hadeeth is the practical implementation of the word of Allah through his prophet Muhmmad (Sulla Allah ho Alayhay Wasalam). Anything OUT of these two, and contradicting these two is NOT islam. Now PLEASE, show me any hadeeth (practical demonstration & implementation) and ANY verse of Quran where MUTAH is allowed? Look you may for the rest of your life but you will NOT find one! You know why? Simple reason Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all), Islam does NOT allow paid legal or free sex for that matter. I insist that you read how I defind islam to you again and that will clear alot of complications you DO have about islam.

*HALALA*
The points raised in your article only show your ignorance, confusion and utter lack of knowledge on the subject you wrote the article on. I am sold on the idea that you do NOT know islam and anything about this relegion. Sadly you come out as a person who do NOT have the guts to live a life liked and chosen by Allah and you are just trying to give excuses by *trying* to find flaws in this beautiful and highly balanced way of life. Kindly understand the CONCEPT of halala and WHY is halala even there in the first place. Islam considers divorce as the most DISLIKED allowed act by Allah. At times when you DONT like an action but IS allowed because it is a matter of choice, you put up stipulations to get your message across that this action is NOT liked. You put up such HARD and UNREASONABLE stipulations that would STOP you from taking that action. Again, in islam divorce IS considered as THE MOST DISLIKED actions.

As far as divorce itself goes, you can NOT divorce your wife in one go! Again! Islam DISLIKES divorces, WHY would it allow divorce in one go just because you got so angry that you lost all ability to think? Procedure of a divorce is, If you said TALAQ once, you will HAVE TO WAIT for forty days MORE to give the SECOND TALAQ and then forty days MORE to give the THIRD one. Why so many days? Since islam dislikes and discourages divorce, these many days are mendatory between talaqs so that the anger subsides and the person can think with a cool head. Motive? To make sure there is NO divorce at the end of the day!
Now, Let us talk about Halala. If you divorced your wife and want to re-marry her, she will need to get married to another guy, have sex with her and get divorced by him first. Agreed! VERY true! This IS the way it is. BUT! There are some very fine details that you totally missed. The last part that she has to get divorced first, add this; The guy she gets married to, IF divorces her by HIS FREE will and ***NOT under an ALREADY DECIDED UPON AGREEMENT*** only THEN she can re-marry her ex-husband! Makes sense? I am sure it still did NOT make sense to you. Word of *education*, Read it again!

Why halala? It is a path that no one with self respect and honor would want to take. Such a strict stipulation is there just to DISCOURAGE divorce. How many people would divorce after understanding this stipulation? NOT MANY Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all). Would you?

*Mr. Educated and Enlightened Gill (not at all)*

Let me turn my attention towards you now. Where are you getting your information from? Do you NOT look at both sides of the picture? Why do you even write articles at all? People like you make me really sad. Simply because you have a bias mind and bias thoughts that only can gush out biasness and nothing else. Next time when you refer to a verse from Quran, kindly give the verse number and chapter number. If you don`t know, kindly just do NOT put it up as a reference, you only look more ignorant than you actually are.

*EVERYONE*

To everyone, Educate yourselves about islam. Do NOT point fingers and post mindless, baseless accusations WITHOUT proper research. Know what relegion is all about and understand it. Once you do, words like extremism and fundamentalism will evaporate from your minds and you will understand what a blanced and beautiful way of life it really is. Respect other relegions and don`t point fingers or try to find flaws in them. If you don`t have guts to follow a relegion or you DO know that this certain relegion makes sense and still you don`t have guts to accept the fact, kindly refrain from pointing fingers. We are supposed to be *educating* each other by sharing GOOD hard earned knowledge, I believe this is the purpose of this website community. May God bless you all and keep all of us in good health.

Commenting on this incident, Darabi expressed her disgust as follows: “I found this law barbaric and inhuman for several reasons, First, the woman’s feelings and rights are not considered and she is forced to be raped for one night by a total stranger. Second, the idea of a man paying another man to ravish his wife for an entire night is appalling. And finally, in the cases where the Muhallal does not divorce the woman, she is forced to live a life in misery (unless the Muhallal happens to be kinder than her ex-husband).”

I don`t really see how the law [that one need marry someone else before being able to remarry one`s former spouse], idosyncratic as it may seem, ``forces a woman to be raped for one night by a total stranger.`` I thought it was unIslamic to force anyone [read `a woman`] into a marraige against her wishes. Would this not apply to a proposed interim marraige too?

It would seem that the ``appalling`` situation to which Darabi refers is brought about more by social conventions rather than Islamic law.

Neither does that let Islamic law off the hook, though. When explored in the context of societies where women are totally dependent on men for their very survival, such interim marriages might be the only recourse open to them, and it is not too difficult to imagine the scenario described by Dabari played out quite commonly.

---

As for Mutah, the author could actually have been on to something in the concluding paragraph, if he hadn`t fallen prey to his (acquired) world view. Stripped of it`s ironic tenor, I can well see many a scandinavian, for instance, readily agreeing to the good sense in that paragraph.

Or am i misconstruing Mr. Gill here?

Re: # 170

HP:

Sorry, it took me sometime to get back to your jahan`deeda and danish`mand views. I was just pulling your leg in my previous post. I did not say anything against mutaa` earlier since I do not even know if real men and women actually undergo this weird practice. I have heard of the term way back. My father, being an attorney, used to deal with the nuances of mutaa` and halala. I have not had extensive discussions on the said matter with him, but I used to hear him educate his clients on the said subject. Being a very focused individual, I never cared much for any of these concepts. Like you, I have not come across anyone who had practical experience with the said terms.


But I am very much against the notion that many hold about prostitution. Many of these horrible men do not realize that the women who are into prostitution may have gone through real life issues. The more I read about the horrific stories, the more I detest these so called ba$tards. I keep on quoting the aftermath of what happened in Afghanistan since that is the most shameful thing any muslim nation can ever imagine. The logic and rationale simply escapes an intelligent mind. Why the bloody hell would you like to enforce orthodox islamic measures on a muslim nation and then force the citizens into beggary and prostitution? This is unbelievable.

Last but not least, the writer of this article can hold any opinion that he wants to. As an interactor, we can agree or disagree. I would not lose sleep on his views if they differ from mine. You have repeated your disagreement on the semantics a few times. Please don`t do that again.

Have a nice weekend.

Re: # 177

Thank you dear AlephNull. I have started reading the book. It seems to be very interesting.

# 178 by Aikthought

Both Halala and Mutah are very tentalizing institutions, especially the former one, which gives you a free ride. I also thought it to be an unjust punishment for the woman for a sin commited by her husband. But I was surprized one day to hear remarks of a wife of a friend of mine on the subject. My friend was worried about a friend of his whose ex-wife was underging Halala opertion arranged with a friend of his to legitimize her remarriage. As it happened the Halala servicicing friend, in contravention of te agreement, refused to divorce the woman without having sex with her which accrding to him was obligatory under Shariah. So my friend was all te more worried for his friends ex-wife undr Halala and said, ``I am worried about the woman who is to go through a terrible ordeal for no fault of her as she was divorced by her husband just in a fit of anger.`` But pert remarked my friend`s wife, ``Why to worry. She will enjoy having seen the `furniture` of both the houses.``

The point of the article as I understood

1. Is a custom/ritual (mutah and hallah in the present article) really islamic or not

2. Some may say yes and some no depending upon the quotes and interpretations used

3. Some people (women in this case) may be treated unfairly by a religion

4. Gill sahib thinks that the ritual IS islamic and not nice to some women

teshah #174 and other posts:

Janaab, given your delightfully sardonic bent of mind, and in light of what you’ve revealed of your personal circumstances, allow me to recommend H.L.Mencken’s wicked
In Defense of Women. It was written in the US eight decades ago but its observations are really for all times and climes. It is not for the humour-impaired – it was extremely politically incorrect when first published and probably remains so today. It may bring you some comfort – if not, I apologise for my impertinence.

#175 by teshah
shahji
in one of your post you mentioned that people in pakistan are demanding high mehr prices, i agree that is the case, i also found that if the boy has green card or british passport then then they don`t tend to demand mehr that has been my experience any way.