Mutah is a fixed-term marriage contract, and Muslims disagree about it more sharply than about almost any other question of family law. Critics say Islam allows prostitution under another name. Some Muslims say the Quran still permits it.
The reports reach us in the canonical hadith collections, and the great commentators gathered them in one place. These six points follow that record.
Two passages in the Quran describe the believers as those who guard their private parts except from their wives and “what their right hands possess” (23:5-6 and 70:29-31).[1] Surah al-Nisa then lists the women a man may marry and says: fa-mastamtatum bihi minhunna fa-atuhunna ujurahunna faridatan (“so for whatever you have enjoyed of them, give them their dower as an obligation”) in 4:24.
The question is what istamtatum means in that verse. Al-Tabari collects the early reports and records that Ibn Abbas read the word as ordinary marriage: once a man marries a woman and has intercourse with her, her whole dower is owed.[2]
Other reports in al-Tabari give the verse as “for whatever you have enjoyed of them for a fixed term” (ila ajalin musamman). They name Ibn Abbas, Ubayy ibn Kab and Qatada, and Abu Nadra says that Ibn Abbas insisted three times that God sent the verse down that way.[3] That wording is not in the Quran as it was written in the Uthmani copies and recited by the community. Al-Tabari himself reads the verse as one about marriage and the settling of the dower, and he calls the explanation of al-Suddi, who took it as a fixed-term contract, a view with no meaning.[4]
The disagreement therefore begins with a variant that a few early authorities held and that the text everyone recites does not contain.
Abdullah ibn Masud reports that the Companions fought beside the Prophet without their wives, and asked whether they should castrate themselves. The Prophet forbade it.[5] Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani places the permission in the same setting: the men were far from home, the strain of living unmarried was heavy, and the Prophet allowed them to contract a marriage for a set period.[6]
Jabir ibn Abdullah and Salama ibn al-Akwa say that a herald of the Prophet came to them and announced that they were allowed to do so.[7] Salama adds that the allowance covered three nights, after which the couple could separate or extend.[8]
Ali ibn Abi Talib reports in al-Bukhari that the Prophet forbade mutah and the meat of domestic donkeys on the day of Khaybar.[9] Sabra al-Juhani reports in Muslim that the Prophet stood and said he had permitted mutah before, and that God had now forbidden it until the Day of Resurrection. Anyone with such a woman was to release her and keep what he had given.[10]
Ibn Hajar counts six occasions that the reports name: Khaybar, the umra of the following year, the conquest of Mecca, Awtas, Tabuk and the farewell pilgrimage. He weighs each chain and finds the firm ones to be Khaybar and the conquest. He gives the weak reasons for the rest, for instance the mursal report of al-Hasan al-Basri about the umra and a chain through Abbad ibn Kathir, whom he calls matruk (abandoned), for Tabuk.[11]
Al-Nawawi, in Ibn Hajar’s summary, holds that mutah was allowed before Khaybar, forbidden there, allowed again in the year of the conquest, and then forbidden for good. Al-Shafii is quoted as saying the same, that it was abrogated twice.[12] Al-Mawardi gives two readings: either the ban was repeated so that more people heard it, or the permission was renewed. Ibn Hajar prefers the second, because the last statement says “until the Day of Resurrection”, wording that closes the matter in a way the earlier bans did not.[12]
Both explanations agree on the outcome. The final statement came at the conquest, and no permission followed it.
Ibn Umar reports in Ibn Majah that when Umar became caliph he stood and said that the Messenger of God had permitted mutah for three days and then forbidden it.[13] Ibn Hajar draws the conclusion that Umar was not making a ruling of his own. He cited a prohibition of the Prophet, and the Companions did not contradict him.[13]
Some people had carried on after the Prophet because they had not heard of the ban. Jabir mentions that practice up to Umar’s time.[13]
Ibn Abbas is reported in al-Bukhari to have allowed mutah. A freedman of his answered that this was in a time of hardship when women were few, and Ibn Abbas agreed.[14] Ali, according to Muslim, rebuked him for his lenience and told him that the Prophet had forbidden it at Khaybar.[15] Ibn Battal says the reports of Ibn Abbas’s retraction have weak chains, and that his permission is the better attested.[16]
Ibn al-Mundhir, quoted by Ibn Hajar, found no one who allowed it in his own time except some of the Shia. Al-Khattabi adds that the Shia position does not fit their own rule of turning to Ali and his family, since Ali’s report of abrogation is sound.[16] Al-Bayhaqi reports, through al-Khattabi, that Jafar ibn Muhammad was asked about it and called it zina itself.[16] I have not checked that attribution against Shia sources. A reader who wants the Twelver case should read it from those sources, and read the Sunni reports above alongside it. Iyad, quoted by Ibn Hajar, records a consensus of all other scholars against it.[16]
The bottom line
The sources show a permission given for a short period to men on campaign, followed by prohibition, with the last statement placed at the conquest of Mecca. The contrary reading of 4:24 depends on a variant that the recited text does not contain. The question to ask of any modern claim is whether it accounts for Ali’s report and for the announcement of Umar.
Notes
- Quran 23:5-6 and 70:29-31. For the meaning of 4:24 see al-Tabari, Jami al-bayan (Dar al-Tarbiya edition), vol. 8, pp. 175-181.
- Al-Tabari, Jami al-bayan, vol. 8, p. 175, report no. 9028 (Ibn Abbas, through Ali ibn Abi Talha).
- Al-Tabari, Jami al-bayan, vol. 8, pp. 176-178, reports nos. 9035-9042 (Ibn Abbas, Ubayy ibn Kab, Qatada) and report no. 9033 (al-Suddi).
- Al-Tabari, Jami al-bayan, vol. 8, pp. 180-181. He lists the views on the clause “and there is no blame on you in what you agree upon after the obligation”, prefers the reading about settling the dower, and rejects al-Suddi’s explanation.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5071 (Book of Marriage, chapter on the marrying of a poor man), narrated by Ibn Masud.
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al-Bari (Salafiyya edition), vol. 9, p. 170, where he recalls Ibn Masud’s report of why the permission was given.
- Sahih Muslim 1405a (Book of Marriage, chapter on mutah, its permission, its abrogation and its prohibition until the Day of Resurrection), narrated by Jabir ibn Abdullah and Salama ibn al-Akwa. Al-Bukhari reports it as 5117-5118.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5119, the report of Salama ibn al-Akwa on the three nights. See Fath al-Bari, vol. 9, p. 167. Muslim 1406a records a related report from Sabra al-Juhani, who stayed three nights before the Prophet told the men to release the women.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5115 and 4216, narrated by Ali ibn Abi Talib (chapters on the Prophet’s prohibition of mutah, and the expedition of Khaybar).
- Sahih Muslim 1406d, narrated by Sabra al-Juhani through his son al-Rabi. Ibn Hajar’s own discussion of the report is in Fath al-Bari, vol. 9, pp. 169-170.
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al-Bari, vol. 9, pp. 168-170 (the six occasions, and his assessment of each).
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al-Bari, vol. 9, p. 170, quoting al-Nawawi, al-Shafii and al-Mawardi (al-Hawi).
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al-Bari, vol. 9, p. 172, on Umar’s announcement, citing Ibn Majah, and the later practice reported by Jabir.
- Sahih al-Bukhari 5116, narrated by Abu Jamra, who heard Ibn Abbas asked about the mutah of women.
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al-Bari, vol. 9, p. 168, collecting the reports that Ali rebuked Ibn Abbas. Muslim reports the version in which Ali tells him to be gentle and cites the ban at Khaybar.
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Fath al-Bari, vol. 9, p. 173, quoting Ibn Battal, Ibn al-Mundhir, Iyad, al-Khattabi and al-Bayhaqi.