The Quranic point of view with
regard to the institution of marriage is based on the following principles and
laws:
Interdependence of man and woman in ensuring fullness of life for each other
through mutual affection, mutual confidence and mutual protection, as husband
and wife has been stressed by using a metaphor of profound beauty: "They are a
garment unto you and you are a garment unto them" (2:187)
For those who can afford it, marriage is an obligation. The Quran says: "Marry
those among you who are single, and the pious among your slaves, male or female:
if they are in poverty, Allah will give them means out of His Grace: Allah is of
ample means, and He is aware of all things." (24: 32)
Contrast it with the attitude of those religions, which advocate celibacy and
idolize it as the ideal of perfection, considering sexual satisfaction even in
the bond of marriage as a positive evil from the spiritual point of view. Thus,
in Christianity: "As an institution, Jesus regards marriage as essentially
physical and intended only for the present age. Those who were to share in the
blessings of the eschatological kingdom would neither marry nor be given in
marriage but would be possessed of the non-physical body in the resurrection."
(*1).
It was this outlook on sex which led to the rule that no man or woman, married
or unmarried, who had performed the sex act the previous night, should take part
in a Church festival or in the Eucharist. (*2).
Christianity, writes the Sociologist Ludovici, "preaches that sex is to be
deplored, to be avoided, and, if possible, negatived. And the Puritan, who may
be regarded as the extreme Christian, is notorious for his implacable loathing
of sex." (*3).
Marriage is a social contract. The word Nikah, used for marriage in the Holy
Quraan, originally means Aqd, according to Imam Raaghib Asfahaani (*4). (alaihir
rahmah). Thus, the very word Nikah implies that marriage is a social contract,
and not a sacrament, although it is a sacred contract. Moreover, the Quraanic
permission to terminate the relation of marriage, if it becomes absolutely
impossible for the husband and the wife to continue that relation, proves that
the Quraan regards marriage as a social contract only.
Women are not to be treated as property (*5). The Quraan says: "O ye who
believe! You are forbidden to inherit (as property) the women against their
will." (4:19)
Marriage with persons of certain categories has been prohibited. The Holy Quraan
has prohibited marriage with all those who may stand in the relations of
consanguinity, or affinity, or fosterage. Almighty Allah states; "Forbidden to
you are your mothers and your daughters and sisters and your father's sisters
and mother's sisters and your brother's daughters and your sister's daughters,
and your mothers who have such to you and your foster sisters and the mothers of
your wives and daughters (your step-daughters) who are in your care from the
wives with whom you had intercourse but if you had no intercourse with them,
then there is no Haraam in their daughters, and the wives of your sons who are
of your loins and to have two sisters together except what has already passed
(*6). Undoubtedly, Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (4: 23)