Sunday, January 18, 2009

Hourly, Daily or Weekly Marriages




















image taken from: www.ordoesitexplode.com/.../wham_bam_thank_.html


A traveller's or pleasure marraige, called a misyar [mis-ee-yarr] for Sunnis (legal in Saudi and Egpyt) or Mut'a [muut-ta'] for Shiites/Shi'ia (mostly Iran and Iraq) is one in which the couple choose how long they will be married for; a quarter of an hour, an hour, a couple of hours, a day, a week, a month, a year, however long they want.

~as an outsider~ There doesn't appear to be very much difference between a misyar and a muta, except the mut'a has a specified time frame and the misyar doesn't.

The couple having chosen to get married will go to the Mullah, get married and will then receive a piece of paper which states they are married. Once the day, or hour of the dissolvement of the marriage arrives then it is no longer valid and it’s all over.

The key thing here to note is that for a woman, she has absolutely no rights with regards to children, money or property. However, it is said as finding husbands becomes harder, Gulf women are contemplating this marriage as an option. (In Saudi, apparently only half the female population of marriageable aged is married).

Consequently, in October 2004 there was an advert across the top of one of the Saudi newspapers announcing 20 Saudi women were looking for a misyar marriage.

The newspaper stated the rules of the marriage would be as follows;
1. the couple would get married
2. she would continue to live in her parents house
3. at no time should she tell the husband’s other wife she existed

The newspaper reported that within a week they had had 4,000 male applicants.
















Image taken from:

progressiveislam.org/tags/marriage



Who uses the Misyar and Mut'a?
"All the misyar marriage contracts I conduct are between men and women remarrying,” said Abu Fawaz, who’s been a marriage official for four years. “For a misyar marriage all you need is witnesses, her dowry and the acceptance of both parties.

Usually the woman either has her own place or lives with her family. Most of the time the woman’s family knows while the man’s family is in the dark about it, be it his first wife or any other family members.”


Further Information
Articles which give a lot more details on the ins and outs ~so to speak~ of misyars and mat'as can be found at:
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=9&section=0&article=64891
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=16308
http://www.islamhouse.com/p/188832


Urban Legend
One expatriate woman married her Gulf husband with a mut'a temporary marriage and when they went for the ceremony, the Mullah would only give them a certificate for 33 years. When she told me about it she was laughing ... but it does mean after 33 years of marriage she will have no rights what-so-ever to any of the joint property and would be unable to keep any of the household items, no matter how small.

Finally, if the marriage was dissolved by her husband she would have no legal visiting rights to any of their children {see wgaw blog archive: pre-nups}.



9 comments:

Naseem said...

you got it twisted..the misyar doesn't have a time frame...the muttah does..in the muttah..they set a divorce date before they wed..the misyar is just a normal marriage but the couple doesn't live together and the woman doesn't rely on the husband

Shirley Sunman said...

You're right, I'd put them the wrong way round in the blog posting, I'll just go and change it!

Happy Muslim Mama said...

Assalam-alaikam,
I have heard of muta, but never of misyar marriage. I had no idea that there was a sunni equivalent.

Pixie said...

It is actually a practice forbidden by the Prophet Mohammed S.A.W later in the history if Islam (and he cursed it till the day of judgement). It is act similar to prostitution in many cases. I'll go look up the Islamic evidence and post it inshaAllah.

Pixie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
nida said...

As'salaam Aleykum sis! i did a post on this too, it's something that gets me sooooo angry! grrr.
:( what has this world come to!

Pixie said...

Temporary Marriage

"Al-Zuhri said : We were with ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz. There we discussed temporary marriage. A man called Rabi’ b. Saburah said : I bear witness that my father told me that the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) had prohibited it at the Farewell Pilgrimage (1399). (2068) Rabi’ b. Saburah reported on the authority of his father : The Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) prohibited temporary marriage with women." Footnote 1399 says, "Mut’ah (temporary marriage) was forbidden by the Prophet (may peace be upon him) on six occasions, namely, at the battle of Khaibar, atonement of the Umrah (‘Umrat al-Qada), conquest of Mecca, battle of Awtas, battle of Tabuk and the Farewell Pilgrimage. Al-Thawri said: What is correct is that temporary marriage was made lawful twice and prohibited twice. It was made lawful before the battle of Khaibar, but prohibited on the same occasion. It was again made lawful at the conquest of Mecca and forbidden on the same occasion. This is the year of the battle of Awtas. Henceforth it was forbidden eternally. This is the view held by all Companions and scholars. Some of the Companions thought it lawful but later on they withdrew their opinion. The present position is that temporary marriage is eternally forbidden according to all the Sunnis (orthodox Muslims)." [Contrary to this, some Hanbalites hold to Mu’tah though.]. Abu Dawud vol.2 no.2067-2069 and footnote 1399 p.554

Anonymous said...

salams sister,
You need to be careful blogging this type of content. There is no sunni equivalent of muta'ah marriage. It is haram. If people are making such marriage contracts then they are straying from the true path and the responsibilities of marriage. This type of marriage is not for the sake of Allah, but for the sake of nafs.
All the same I was interested in the blog, I am sure many people are doing dodgey stuff, which in the end , the akhirah, they will have to pay for it.

Shirley Sunman said...

Khadija,

There is a Sunni equivalent to the Shiite/Shia/Shi'ite Mat'ta marriage, it's called a Misyar

That is when the woman has no legal right to anything (including the children) either before, during or after the marriage.

It has been said they are different because there is no time line involved in a Sunni pleasure marriage. But basically one is the same as the other. These marriages do occur and are absoultely legal in both Saudi Arabia and in Egypt.

Have to say I love the fear aspects you introduce in your comments ...