Talk Islam

Recently, Yemen passed a legislation raising the minimum age of marriage to 17. But the legislation may be rescinded because some parliamentarians say it violates Shariah. .... If Shariah doesn’t set a minimum, does that necessarily lead to the conclusion that a community cannot set a minimum age on their own for…any number of reasons…not least of which would be the abuse of children. It seems like the law would only violate Shariah if Shariah explicitly forbade setting such a minimum.

.... It may have something to do with the general principle that one cannot outlaw what has been declared permissible.

Example: conservative Muslims would have a problem with an outright prohibition on polygamy because it has been deemed permissible through the example of the Prophet and the early Muslims. There are arguments that a man should not take a second (or third, or fourth) wife if he is unable to treat each of the wives equally or if there is fear of jealousy from any of the wives, which is why (level-headed) scholars generally discourage the practice. But none of them would declare it outright impermissible.

Likewise, according to Shariah, a woman is of marriageable age once she hits puberty…the obvious example is the marriage of Aisha. Ultra-conservative thinking dictates that if the Prophet did it, it cannot be declared as illegal by any governing body. So while it can be discouraged based on arguments like child abuse and immaturity of the bride-to-be, these types would not be ready to declare it illegal. [Talk Islam] Read more