Child Marriages are Abhorrent in Islam!

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Apr 9, 2010

I take severe umbrage at the title given for the Malaysian Insider article as ‘Child Marriages Fair in Islam, Foul by Law’.

By Farouk A. Peru

I understand that the title possibly came from the content of the article where ‘Kelantan Women, Family and Health executive councillor Hajah Wan Ubaidah Omar said Islam condoned such marriages if they were approved by the Syariah court’. She said “In God’s eyes legal, but in laws of the country (Malaysia) not legal’. However, whoever gave the title should have known that there are a multiplicity of views in Islam and numerous Islamic groups who oppose such marriages. At best, the article’s title should read ‘Child Marriages are fair in the eyes of some Muslims’.

As such, I will also be audacious and speak on behalf of Islam. I say NO, child marriages are NOT allowed in Islam. On the contrary, they are ABHORRENT in Islam. They totally contravene the spirit of the Islamic social philosophy. Not only that, the justifications given by their supporters (about the Prophet’s marriage to Aisha ibn Abu Talib) are weak at best.

We must first begin with the Quran which all Muslims agree is the primary source of Islamic law. The Quran commands believers to marry believers regardless of social class (2/221). It is the understanding of the identity of the term ‘believers’ which will help us understand the Quran’s view on child marriages.

In the Quran, a believer is one who follows (not merely professes but actually follows) the commands specifically given to believers in the Quran (which start with ‘oh believers’). These commands include the following:

Running one’s affairs with recognised terms (9/71)

2.To spend out of what they have earned for God (2/254)

3. To correctly establish contracts (2/282)

4. To not devour usury (3/130)

5. To make wills before death arrives (5/106)

And many other examples which show that the ‘believer’ is one who functions in society as a fully mature and rational individual. It is these people who marry among themselves. How can a child who can barely understand these things be made to marrry. She simply would not understand her decision.

This leaves us with the hadith of Aisha which is used by Islamophobes to demean the personality of the Prophet. But really, can Muslims blame them? Not only do our hadith carry this information, we have people like that Hajjah Ubaidah actually claiming it’s ‘God’s law’. Such ignorance puts Muslims in dire straits indeed.

In truth, there are great disputes on the status of this hadith. The narrator of this hadith, Hisham ibn Urwah, is said to have a faulty memory for a start.