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Mut'a (temporary marriage)

نكاح المتعة

Mut'a — fixed-term marriage for a fee; Ahmad Amin surveys the hadiths (licensed in travel and need, then forbidden, with Umar's emphatic prohibition and the four imams' ijma') against the Shi'i retention via al-Baqir and al-Sadiq 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Rashidun Caliphate · The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region
Arabia · Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

Sects and schoolsDevelopment of law, theology and institutions

Overview

Nikah al-mut'a is a marriage for a fixed term in return for a payment. Ahmad Amin gathers a selection of the hadiths concerning it. 2

Points of view

The people of the Sunna: it was permitted at certain times out of necessity, as in the hadiths of Awtas, Khaybar, and the conquest of Mecca, and then it was forbidden. Umar confirmed its prohibition, and the disagreement ended with the consensus of the four imams and the jurists of the cities. 3

The academic view: Ahmad Amin holds that the evident sense of the hadiths taken together is that it was allowed in cases of necessity and then forbidden, and that the reports from Ibn Abbas, Ibn Mas'ud, and Ali vary. 4

The Imami Shi'a: it is related from Ali, al-Baqir, and al-Sadiq that it is lawful, and in the al-Kafi of al-Kulayni it is related from al-Baqir that it is lawful until the Day of Resurrection. 5

Opinions on the question

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

More opinions (2)

Academic viewSecondary opinion

Shia (Twelver) viewOther opinion

People and things also explored

The Strife over Declaring the Hanbalis Unbelievers and the Looting of the Nizamiyya Market· The Hanafi school (madhhab)· The Hanbali school (madhhab)· The Maliki school (madhhab)· The Shafi'i school (madhhab)· The Zahiri school (madhhab)· داود الظاهري· Al-Kadhimiya Mosque (Kazimayn shrine)

Sources

  1. Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012) , p. 883-886
  2. Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012) , p.883-886
  3. Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012) , p.884-885
  4. Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012) , p.885
  5. Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012) , p.885-886
  • Asma al-Matalib fi Sirat Ali ibn Abi Talib, vol. 1 — Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Mut'a (temporary marriage)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/muta/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

The Strife over Declaring the Hanbalis Unbelievers and the Looting of the Nizamiyya Market

In 470 Nizam al-Mulk's letter reached Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi rebuking the anti-Hanbali agitation in his own Nizamiyya: 'Sultan's policy and the rule of justice oblige us to lean to no madhhab over another; we did not build this school but to shelter the people of learning — not to split the community — and the madhhab that dominates Baghdad and its quarters is that of the imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.' The Hanbalis circulated it and were strengthened. Then on Tuesday 2 Shawwal a madrasa student called al-Iskandarani went to Suq al-Thulatha pronouncing the Hanbalis unbelievers; pelted with a brick he fled back to the madrasa market, whose men sallied out and looted the other market — until the mob reversed it, burst into the madrasa market, plundered their quarter and killed a sick man in his room. The Daylamite guards shot dead some fifteen, and the bodies were carried to the diwan for the qadis and witnesses to attest.