Sham marriages shame Hyderabad

Islam describes it as ‘haram’

S.A Ishaqui | DC

Hyderabad: “There is no sanction in Islam for contract marriages and temporary marriages too are forbidden,” Mufti Omar Abedeen Qasmi Madni, an eminent city based Islamic scholar has said. Marriage in Islam, according to him, is a ‘strong binding contract based on the willingness of both partners to live together permanently.’

“Temporary marriages were allowed in Islam, but later they were forbidden by Prophet Mohammed,” says Madni. Citing a recent incident in which an old couple in the old city sold their daughter to a foreigner, eminent Islamic scholar Asif-uddin Muhammed said such a practice had ended long ago. Such an incident happening in this age is quite shocking,” said the scholar who is also president of the Islamic Academy for Comparative Religion. He opined that the problem has its root not in poverty but in the people’s ignorance of the Islamic traditions or their contemptuous attitude to Islam that prohibits dowry.

According to Madni, four important schools of thought in Islam — Hanafi, Shafi, Hanbali and Maliki — are unanimous that Prophet Mohammed declared contract marriages as ‘haram’ in Islam.