A Bitter Reality
A Bitter Reality
An innocent young woman, in the prime of her youth, was beguiled by the empty promises of a cunning suitor whose expressions of affection led her to believe that he actually wanted to marry her immediately after graduating from university studies. This trope is an effective snare which many randy youths utilise to lure naïve damsels and then exploit them. He relentlessly tried to arrange a meeting with her, but all plans were failing him and she refused anything except marriage. He requested that he arrange a Mut’ah agreement. He swore that he would marry her in a permanent marriage later on, since his current situation would not allow for that. After she declined his request, he did his utmost to reassure her of the permissibility of the action, and asked her to consult the books of fatwa.
She began to apprehensively read those fatwa books, as she underwent an internal struggle between her instinct and the literature in front of her which stated the permissibility of this form of marriage. As a matter of fact, some books would emphasize the significant reward for one who engages in Mut’ah. In the end, she entrusted her affair to the guidance of the fatwa books.
It was merely a matter of months when she discovered that she was pregnant and approached her gallant would-be-suiter, whom she shared a bed with in a Mut’ah arrangement, to inform him of the pregnancy. He replied nonchalantly, “What evidence is there to prove to me that this is my child?”
It is possible that this woman was mistaken in even entertaining conversation with this coward to begin with. She was partly responsible—in her simple-mindedness—for believing him, and consequently surrendering herself, her intellect, her honour, and her future to the fatwa books. However, she was not alone in this venture of hers; the crime is also shared by the scholars as well when they issued verdicts on its permissibility. Society is also to be blamed for acquiescing to such debauchery for no purpose at all other than in defence of those sanctified fatwas!
It is the shared responsibility of all of these parties, and the sin is on all of them. Why did they then disperse to carry on with their lives, leaving this woman by herself to bear all the consequences whilst the coward got away scot-free? If anything, he could have arranged Mut’ah with a second, or a third, or a ninth woman for that matter, leaving his spawn in every household with the blessing of the clergy, the guardians of the society!
This woman, in the eyes of society, became the criminal who bears the shame of her deed until her death, but after what? After all of these people impressed upon her that what she would undertake was permissible and not blameworthy.
The woman herself is to bear all the pain; whilst the clergy—in their ivory towers with their narcissistic noses in the sky—simply ignore all that goes on. Society, instead of putting a stop to this tragedy, seeks to creatively invent and propagate rumours about this poor woman who did nothing except submit herself to those same fatwas that they all sanctify.
What is the sin of the child that is to be born without a father as the society looks at it as if it were an illegitimate child? It is already decided before its birth that it will live scorned by the rest of society. By Allah, every child that was born as a result of Mut’ah will come on the Day of Reckoning and cling to the neck of those who gave the fatwa of the permissibility of this cursed marriage.
Allah subhanahu wa ta ‘ala said:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُحِبُّونَ أَن تَشِيعَ الْفَاحِشَةُ فِي الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ
Those who love that promiscuity spreads amongst those who believe, for them is a painful punishment in the world and the afterlife.[1]
“Those who love that it spreads”, simply loving the spread of licentiousness necessitates a painful punishment, so what about those who actually spread it? What about those who issue fatwas to that end?
A relative of mine once told me that one of her neighbours was bereaved of her husband, and she had children. Her condition was such that she had no source of income. She went to a particular cleric seeking his help in providing for these orphans. He said, “Allow me to engage in Mut’ah with you and I will help you…” She refused, naturally. Who would have the self-respect that this woman had? The Arabs have an adage, “A free woman would die, but she will not eat with her breasts.”
She refused because she is a woman of honour. When one of the brothers of this cleric came to him to reprimand him he replied, “I only asked her to engage in Mut’ah in exchange for my help; I never asked for anything impermissible!”
To take advantage of the need and poverty of people, and demanding sexual gratification as quid quo pro is not impermissible! The idiom that best describes people like this, which could very well be their life motto is, “Only that which I am deprived from is Haram; as for Halal, it is whatever is in your hands.”
Why is the woman so denigrated, and why is her dignity trampled on in such an ugly way? Does the woman have no honour in the eyes of these people? Why do they look at women the way that they were looked at in Jahiliyyah, where she has no role to play except for fulfilling the lusts of people? What is the difference between European promiscuity and Mut’ah?
A youngster in Europe chooses a girl with whom he spends some time, until he gets bored of her, upon which he leaves her and searches for another, and so on. In Mut’ah, the youngster will take from the girl what he desires as if she was a piece of chewing gum, spitting her out when he is finished with her. Why is the woman treated like a commodity in the market? Is she not a human with feelings and honour? If that is really the case, then we ought to honour her the way that her Creator, the Most Merciful of those who show mercy, honoured her.
[1] Surah al Nur: 19.