Misyar marriage… what is it, and is it like muta’ah?

Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim

Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah


There was a comment on my FB wall by someone that I wanted to clarify.  There was a comparison between misyar  marriage mut’ah marriage.  What are these terms?  I’ll deal with the second one first.

Okay, mut’ah is basically temporary marriage.  A man and a woman contract this “marriage” for a set period of time, an hour, a day, a year.  He gives her some sort of gift and then they are considered married for the agreed period of time.  After that time passes, the marriage expires and they can renew it or not.

This type of marriage is forbidden in Islam but is allowed by the Shi’a religion.  It was allowed for a while during the time of Prophet Muhammad, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, when the Companions had not yet developed the self-discipline to remain chaste when they were on military campaigns away from their wives.  Later, mut’ah was made haraam,  forbidden, permanently.  Muslims do not practice mut’ah,  plain and simple.  The time limit is what makes it an impermissible form of marriage.  Please read this fatwa from the website www.islam-qa.com:

http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/20738/temporary%20marriage

Now, misyar  marriage is not the same as mut’ah.  In fact, misyar is basically the term that has arisen for a marriage that has conditions.  If these conditions are permissible in Islam and they are agreed upon by the man and the woman, than the marriage is valid if the usual conditions are also fulfilled.  There must be agreement, a wali, witnesses, mahr, and announcing the marriage.

For instance.  Aisha wants to get married, but she has been unable to find a suitable match.  She meets Ahmed, and he says he will marry her but he can’t afford to pay to support her because he has to send money back to his home country.  She works and has her own money, so of her own free will she gives up her right to maintenance and they are married.  This is a permissible Islamic marriage because the conditions are all fulfilled – they do the wali / mahr / witness / announce thing.  This marriage might be termed “misyar” because she has given up some of her rights, one of which is financial support.  It is important to understand that misyar is not some new made-up marriage; it is simply a marriage with conditions and the term misyar has become popular even though you can avoid the term completely as it doesn’t really have a basis in Sharia’ah as far as I know (someone correct me if I am wrong).  Following is a link with more details on this type of marriage:

http://www.islam-qa.com/en/ref/82390

Now, I would like to say that I very much DISLIKE this type of marriage where women give up their rights.  Here in the United States, it is a common ploy for some men to pressure women to give up their rights for baseless reasons, and women feel desperate to get married and give up their rights.  My advice is, if a brother brings up misyar marriage, nine times out of ten I’d say turn around and walk away.  Just walk away.

And Allah knows best.

Fi Aman Allah,

Nancy