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Sigheh or Muta - temporary marriage


tonyhp32

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My good friend Singho has recently been promoting Signeh marriage as some kind of solution for the west and something that does away with adultery and immoral living. Here is a article I found by Dinesh D'Souza who is an intellectual and well as an avid defender of Islam.

Temporary Marriage In Iran

Dinesh D'Souza

I wasn't in the audience at Columbia, so I didn't get to pose a question to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I would have guessed that he is pretty capable of answering questions about the Holocaust ("at least we didn't do it") and Iran's nuclear aspirations ("entirely peaceful").

Even his stated goal of wiping Israel off the map doesn't break the register on my surprise-o-meter. Nor would I be entirely astonished if there are many leaders in Israel who'd like to see today's Iran wiped off the map.

I would have liked to ask Ahmadinejad about the Shia practice of sigheh (in Farsi) or muta (in Arabic). This is the practice, widespread in Iran, of "temporary marriage." Such marriages are forbidden in Sunni Islam but they are permitted in Shia Islam.

The origin of temporary marriage is in the early days of Islam, when warriors would go to faraway battles and not return home for several months or even years. During this period, they were permitted to enter into temporary marriages which could be dissolved after an agreed-upon period by the man simply proclaiming the end of the arrangement.

Since Islam allows polygamy up to four wives, this was not considered a radical departure from the rules of the Koran.

Whatever you think of the original arrangement, it is mightily abused today in Iran. Mullahs who are traveling on pilgrimages routinely take temporary wives, sometimes for a week, sometimes for a day, sometimes for a few hours. In the West we call this prostitution.

In Iran it is hallowed by the name of sigheh and it has the full sanction of the law. One can only imagine the plight of poor women in Iran who are driven by necessity to become de facto prostitutes. I'm sure there are some at the ACLU and on the left who would say the women are noble "sex workers" whose only deprivation is that they are not paid the minimum wage. They are, after all, consenting adults. But anyone who believes in female dignity and family values has to consider sigheh a complete scandal.I'm curious how a fellow like Ahmadinejad, who likes to portray himself as a defender of human dignity and of the Muslim family, would respond to what his mullah friends are doing on a regular basis. These abuses of power--financial, political, sexual--are more likely to discredit and ultimately bring down the regime of the mullahs than all the "tough questions" about nuclear weapons and the Holocaust.

I would like to debate this issue with Singho as far from being the answer to any society's problem with prostitution, Muta is a form of prostitution legalised through the abuse of marriage!

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No. This is a singularly Arab contribution to the semitic traditions. Muta marriage was allowed by Mohammed and according to Shia sources never abolished although Sunnis say it was. Not to be totally outdone in the cloaking prostitution as marriage stakes Sunni have a similar type of marriage called Misyar or travellers marriage. This is the form of marriage that rich Arabs contract with young Muslim girls from Hyderabad. They pay a certain amount of money and enjoy the rights of a husband and then after a few days divorce the girl. And there was I thinking that Sex Tourism was a western invention when all along Mohammed had been far ahead of his time and realised that if you were rich enough then you should be allowed to use your wealth to take advantage of those who have very little.

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In Iran sighe is registered by the state and counts like a marriage. The reason why it is registered is to avoid it being misused for prostitution. In most cases it is used by young couples who are engaged before marriage so they can see each other regularly. Prostitution is Iran as nothing to do with sighe. A woman who as done sighe as to wait 40 days before doing another one and it always needs to be registered. In Iran prostitutes don't do that. I don't know how you came up with this idea Veer Ji but it just doesn't work that way in Iran I am afraid. So my dad says.

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wow !! i didnt know any thing about sigheh and muta. this is the first time I am coming to know... well clearly i dont see any difference between sigheh/muta and prostitution !.. they both are the same.

Its like making "prostitution" as "legal" under the name of marriage.

in anycase, these things are strictly against gurmat !

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The fact that it is registered by the state does not mean that is not akin to prostitution. A Muta marriage has a time span which is written into the contract, it can be as low as the time it takes to do the sex act or as high as a few years. The whole basis of this marriage is that the man is paying a 'fee' called a dowry to the woman for which he expects the use of her body for his pleasure! This is not nothing like the apologists for muta would ike us to believe that it is just a way for a couple to see each other! The whole basis of the meeting up is for the man to use the woman sexually. The very name Muta Nikaah means marriage for pleasure!

For those who think that just because the woman has to wait a few months before she gets another husband shows that this is not prostitution are mistaken. Prostitution is taking money for granting sexual favours. The is no limit to how many times someone has to take this money before they can be called a prostitute. A Muslim woman can technically have 6 clients in a year so that makes it prostitution. Amusing fact is that Singho our resident Shia was presenting Sigheh as some kind of solution for the west's immorality!

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tonyhp, it's no surprise that you have to resort to lies about what I have written on this forum, and then address the lies you yourself have made up. Where did I say sigheh was a solution to 'immorality'? I said it was a solution to prevent the spread of disease such as HIV/AIDS, which also repels gold-diggers and guards against rape.

Now, if the problem is that Muslim women voluntarily accept money from men, then where does that leave the Indian dowry system of marriages? Apparently it's better to pay off the man's family to take a substantial bribe to accept your daughter's hand, than for your daughter to accept small gifts or tokens of affection from a non-permanent partner in a committed, monogamous relationship? I can't accept this.

If the problem is that a woman can take 6 men in a year then contrary to what you're saying, that can't be prostitution can it? A hooker might need to take 6 men a night to support herself and a drug habit, or 6 men a week to just support herself. So your insulting remarks about Iranian women taking REGISTERED male partners just reveal more about your own self-made Taleban brand of Sikhi which perhaps you might be able to convince a few born-again Sikhs or virgin warrior types to buy, but which to me is just pointless moralising.

Have you got any point apart from just sharing your opinion?

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Apologies I thought that AIDS and rape were problems of immorality or is Islamic morality different from that of normal people?

Dowry is against Sikhi whereas Muta is a religiously sanctioned marriage. So your comparison is invalid. A prostitute doesn't have to have 6 men a night to make a living. It all depends on how much mahr (dowry but in this case the fee) she receives.

As for your comments about my Taliban Sikhi, well if your such a knowledgable guy you would know that Taliban and Sikh though meaning the same thing in different languages are totally poles apart. We allow Mosques in Amritsar, do Muslims allow Gurdawaras in Saudi Arabia? They don't because the person who you claim is the model for humanity was so insecure about his religion that he instructed his followers make sure that no non-Muslim religion is allowed in Arabia.

If find my reference to Muslim women having registered male partners, sorry but I write it as I see it. I find the woman as a prostitute because she accepts money in return for letting the man have his way with for a specified period. The man is nothing more than a client and the Mullah who conducts the marriage is the pimp.

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So you tonyhp32 and waheguru bol are calling my Iranian colleagues at uni who have boyfriends they are going to marry prostitutes because they have done sighe?

Tonyo32:

"We allow Mosques in Amritsar, do Muslims allow Gurdawaras in Saudi Arabia? "

1.It's not you who allows it Veer Ji it's the Indian constitution.

2. Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country among many others. It is not Islam itself nor does it speak for all of Islam.

Again Veer Ji I am just stating facts. I am just trying to understand.

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Boyfriends who they are going to marry?? Do you understand the concept of sigheh? If they have done sigheh then they are married but married for pleasure and they have a set date on their contract when it will expire. Sigheh is not a licence to date and meet up in order to find out whether they are conpatible, it is a contract for which a man pays a woman money and she lets him have sex with her. Sorry to be so blunt but your Iranian colleagues might not be telling you the whole truth about sigheh.

Saudi Arabia bans the public worship of other religions and non-Muslims are not allowed to have copies of their holy books. This is an ISLAMIC precept and nothing to do with what kind of Islam is followed by the rulers of Saudi Arabia. Ask any Muslim whether they are Wahabi, Sunni, Shia, Ahmedi and they will all say that no other forms of worship should be allowed in Saudi Arabia.

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Are you calling my friends liars? The way they explained to me is that you cannot date unless your man is your husband. So sighe makes it possible for them to date their men.Most of my friends chose to remain virgins before their nikkah but I know three who have sex with their sighe husbands. In any case if they get pregnant their sighe husbands are also responsible and have to provide financial support. Sighe isn't just about sex veer ji it's just a different marriage contract and what the man pays is a dowry. That's definetly not prostitution. It's like you telling me that if my husband is giving me a dowry he's paying for sex. That is ludicrous. And in any case prostitution in Iran has nothing to do with sighe.My friends and colleagues are not poor women exploited by some rich men.

As for your note on Saudi Arabia I am sorry but two of my colleagues were arrested and beaten last year in Medina by the Saudi religious police because they were praying the Shi'a way. As I said, Saudi Arabia doesn't stand for Islam.

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Well I don't need to call them liars because you have just proved that. Initially your point was that sigheh was just so that couples could date and meet each other. Now you are telling us that three of your friends have had sex with their sigheh husbands. So where does your earlier point of "calling my Iranian colleagues at uni who have boyfriends they are going to marry prostitutes because they have done sighe" come into it. If they have a sigheh contract then they are married but only for the duration of the contract.

Your confusion is understandable beacause no one wants to admit that their colleagues may be doing something immoral. Your comparision with dowry from a husband does not make sense. If you read what the Islamic scholars say about sigheh and not what you friends might be saying.

In some works a special term is applied to women who participate in mut'a: musta'jara, or 'rented woman'. Mut'a is considered a kind of 'rental' because in general a man's basic aim in this kind of marriage is the sexual enjoyment of a woman, and in return for his enjoyment the woman receives a certain amount of money or property. In defining 'rental' the jurisprudents say: 'It is to gain possession of a benefit in exchange for a specified sum.' [10] This definition applies equally to temporary marriage. In this connection a number of hadith have been recorded in which the word musta'jara is employed. [11]

If you read the statements in bold then you may realise why I called this type of marriage prostitution.

Just because Shias can get beaten up in Mecca doesn't mean that non-Muslims should not be allowed to practise their faith in Saudi Arabia. This prohibition is the gift of Mohammed to the world and is based on his direct statements. So it has everything to do with ISLAM

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Guest Rusydi

Salam. I think the nikah is permittable. Either mut'a or lifetime marriage. Such you give anything she likes, certainly not just a money. Or you will say, it is a love-marriage. Not like another marriage which we usually done, we marrying to whole of family, with all member's permission is granted. They both can stay with family members too. So must be noted that, you should not, forcely intercous, and having it without any legal relationship.

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