Marriage in Islam has an important purpose and there’s wisdom behind its sacred institution. One of the most important purposes of marriage is to continue and increase the human population.
Marriage is a partnership between a man and a woman to enable them to enjoy life to the fullest through mutual cooperation that includes love, caring, appreciation and respect.
Marriage has long-term goals that can’t be achieved unless it is based on different factors and obligations. In Islam, marriage is a solid relationship that aims for a foundation of settlement and continuity. That’s why the Prophet (peace be upon him) emphasized that it is important to ask about the suitor’s background, reputation and morals. He also stressed the importance of choosing a woman with characteristics that enable her to help the marriage institution succeed and be preserved.
Everything proves that marriage isn’t just a temporary thing people pass by quickly. It is a lifelong commitment that paves the way for other projects to develop and grow.
In the light of all this, I wonder who gave some people the right to come up with ideas and fatwas granting men the right to use marriage as a means of experiencing quick pleasure, regardless of the psychological and physical torture the women might experience without committing either a sin or a crime?
What is going on in allowing convicted criminals to get married?
A murderer in Taif married a young woman who didn’t realize the consequences of what she was doing and didn’t comprehend the reality of it. She will be left to live with that man until he is executed and she will become a very young and beautiful widow. What if she becomes pregnant with a child whose fate is already to be an orphan even before he is born? The same thing has happened in Jeddah with another convicted murderer. How does society allow such things to happen?
The first woman said that no one had pressured her into the marriage and that she willingly agreed to it. She said she would take care of her mother-in-law after her husband’s execution. As for the second woman, she said that she was ready to bring up her husband’s children — by an ex-wife — after he is executed. Those two women are burying themselves alive while society watches them without giving a warning or advice.
What kind of religion and what kind of logic accept such situations? What about the third victim — the ex-wife of the prisoner — who is going to be deprived of her children so that their father’s widow brings them up after they are forcibly taken from her?
It is her God-given right to have custody of her daughters as long as their father is in jail and is going to be executed. Instead of making things better for them and allowing them a better life with their mother, their stepmother is given the right to look after them away from their mother’s love. Why would the second wife take responsibility for bringing up the children of the first wife when the first wife is willing and able to bring up her own children?
Who allowed the families of the two women to destroy their daughters’ futures with such marriages? Even if the two convicted murderers were pardoned, who could guarantee their behavior after they leave prison? Who is responsible for the future of these women if anything should happen to them? If and when the pardon happened, why not wait for it to be implemented and then make the marriage contract?
Having an area in prison for legal “khalwa” (isolation) is supposed to serve married prisoners, which I believe is something the General Presidency of Prisons should be thanked for. But that doesn’t mean altering the noble goal this area was created for in order to serve something useless and meaningless. We hear and read enough divorce stories every day. Do we need to create more of them? Isn’t enough is enough?
