The Purposes of Marriage

The strong emphasis that Islam has put on marriage may be seen more clearly in the context of the purposes that marriage is designated to serve. In common with other systems, Islam favors marriage as a means to emotional and sexual gratification; as a mechanism of tension reduction, legitimate procreation, and social placement; as an approach to interfamily alliance and group solidarity.

But there seems to be a difference of degree, at least, in that Islam’s relatively greater stress on these ends enhanced to a corresponding degree the value

placed on marriage.

The social significance of this difference in emphasis is that marriage was contracted while the prospective mates were still relatively young, and that it was more common among Muslims than among others.

Progeny apparently were highly desirable and were received with enthusiasm. It is true that many of these practices go back to pre-Islamic times, when Arab men preferred to marry young virgins and to seek marriage outside their immediate kinship group, in the belief that it was more conducive to numerous as well as healthy progeny. Such practices continued in Islam and were approved by the Prophet.

What is probably most characteristic of the Islamic position, is that marriage, apart from these functions and perhaps also because of them, is regarded first and foremost as an act of piety.

Sexual control may be a moral triumph, reproduction a social necessity or service, and sound health a gratifying state of mind. Yet these values take on a special meaning and are reinforced if they are intertwined with the idea of Allah, conceived of as religious commitments, and internalized as divine blessings.

And this seems to be the focal point of marriage in Islam, even though it does not exclude or underrate the other purposes. To paraphrase some Qur’anic verses, the call is addressed to mankind to be dutiful to God, who created them from a single soul, and from it, or of it, created its mate, and from the two of them spread abroad many men and women (4:1).

It was Allah who created mankind out of one living soul, and created of that soul a spouse so that he might find comfort and rest in her (7:107).

And it is a sign of Allah that He has created for men, of themselves, mates to seek in their company peace and tranquility, and has set between them mutual love and mercy. “Surely, in that are signs for those who contemplate” (30:20).

Even at the most trying times of married life, and in the midst of legal disputes and litigations, the Qur’an reminds the mates involved of Allah’s injunctions to be kind and charitable to one another and dutiful to Allah.

It is noteworthy that the Islamic marriage provisions apply equally to men and women. For example, if celibacy is not recommended for men, the same is true for women; marriage is the normal course for both of them.

It may be even more so for women since it assures them of relative economic security, among other things. This added advantage for women does not, however, picture marriage as a purely economic transaction.

In fact, the least focal aspect of marriage in the precepts of Islam is the economic factor, no matter how powerful this may have been in other ideologies. The Prophet is reported to have said that a woman is ordinarily sought as a wife for her wealth, for her beauty, for the nobility in her stock, or for her religiosity; but blessed and fortunate is he who chooses his mate on the basis of piety and integrity.

The Qur’an commends marriage to the spouseless and the pious even though they may be poor or slaves (24:32). On the other hand, whatever dowry a man gives his prospective wife belongs to her exclusively and whatever she may have acquired before or after marriage is hers alone. There is no statutory community of property of husbands and wives.

Furthermore, it is the husband who is responsible for the support and economic security of the family. He must even provide his wife with the kind of help and service to which she was accustomed before marriage. According to some jurists, the wife is under no legal obligation to do the routine housework, although she may do so, and usually does, as the family situation requires."