Islamic marriage advice and family advice

Is Travel Marriage Halal?

fell in love during my travels

Salam Alikum,

I need to ask about the travel marriage if it is haram or halal. Now a days many people are doing travel marriages even for one week or so.

 

Please let me know if it is halal or haram.

This will be more helpful if some one can bring any fatwa or Hadeeth if it is considered as a ZINA.


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14 Responses »

  1. Salaams,

    I am not completely clear what you mean when you refer to "travel marriages". To me, this can mean one of two things:

    1. A marriage which is temporary from the outset, and is "contracted" for a certain length of time at the nikkah. These are termed "mutah marriages" and generally only Shia consider these as halal. So, if a person wants to marry someone while they are at a travel destination, and after the travels they are no longer married, it would be classified as a mutah marriage.

    2. A marriage where the couple deliberately lives separately, and only engage in marital relations when one spouse travels to the other. This is called a nikkah misyar. Generally, these marriages are considered halal in the technical legal sense, but there are obvious drawbacks to such a marriage which prevent it from being widely encouraged.

    If you want more information about what scholars think of these type of marriages, it can be found on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikah_Misyar. If you still feel you have questions about the matter that apply to your particular situation, I encourage you to discuss them with your local imam.

    -Amy
    IslamicAnswers.com Editor

  2. A Hadith in Sahih Muslim, the Prophet Sal. said Temporary Marriage has been forbidden till the day of judgement.

  3. To be honest I dont know much about the different types of nikkah, but I do understand that marriage is a life long decision, which involves completing the nikkah and sharing the rest of your life with that person. So this whole concept of a travel nikkah is completely new to me, and to be quite frank sounds ridiculous.

    Why on earth are people getting married for a week while they travel, is it to legalise sexual affairs ??? If so, arent they just using each other and then leaving them for the next person they travel with ?? How is that a marriage?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

    Can you please elaborate on this travel nikkah...it just sounds so ridiculous!!!!

    • It sounds ridiculous because it IS ridiculous. There is no such thing in Islam sister confusedpuzzle, dont worry. In Islam, the Nikkah is never contracted with an "expiry" date on it. That is haraam. full stop.

      Agha, I believe you are talking about Muta. Muta was made haraam by Muhammad s.a.w. Marriage is a life long commitment and should never have a termination date.

      Read this fatwa inshallah to understand why its haraam.

      ---------------------

      Q: What is the ruling on Mut'ah marriages?

      Praise be to Allaah.

      Mut’ah marriage means that a man marries a woman – either Muslim or from the people of the Book – and specifies how long the marriage will last, for example five days, or two months, or half a year, or many years. The beginning and end of the marriage are specified, and he pays her a small mahr (dowry), and after the specified time is over, the woman exits the marriage. This kind of marriage was permitted during the year of the Conquest of Makkah for three days, then it was disallowed and prohibited until the Day of Resurrection. This was reported by Muslim (1406).

      The wife is the one with whom one stays on a long-term basis, as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

      “… and live with them honourably …” [al-Nisaa’ 4:19], but in the case of mut’ah a man does not live with the woman for long.

      The wife is the one who is called a wife in sharee’ah, with whom the relationship is long-lasting. She is mentioned in the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):

      “Except from their wives or (the slaves) that their right hands possess, ¾ for then, they are free from blame” [al-Mu’minoon 23:6] – the latter (a slave whom one’s right hand possesses) is not a wife according to sharee’ah, because her stay is limited to a short time.

      The wife is the one who inherits from the husband, or from whom the husband inherits, because Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

      “In that which your wives leave, your share is a half if they have no child…” [al-Nisaa’ 4:12]. But the woman in a mut’ah marriage does not inherit, because she is not a wife, since she spends such a short time with the man.

      On these grounds, Mut’ah marriage is considered to be zinaa (adultery or fornication), even if both parties consent to it, and even if it lasts for a long time, and even if the man pays the woman a mahr. There is nothing that has been reported in sharee’ah that shows that it may be permitted, apart from the brief period when it was allowed during the year of the conquest of Makkah. That was because at that time there were so many people who has newly embraced Islam and there was the fear that they might become apostates, because they had been used to committing zinaa during the Jaahiliyyah. So this kind of marriage was permitted for them for three days, then it was made haraam until the Day of Resurrection, as was narrated by Muslim, 1406.

      From al-Lu’lu’ al-Makeen min Fataawa Fadeelat al-Shaykh ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn Jibreen, p. 41.

      • Asalamu alaikum

        I agree with you faith,travel marriages is just like the Muta marriages.I live in Saudi arabia and many people are doing such marriages called (Muta).Many Shias live here in saudi arabia and they encourage sunni muslims to do mutah marriage.

        And about this travel marriage in Islam there is nothing called (Travel marriage).
        And there is no difference between getting married while traveling,or being in ones own locality according to all the muslims.Any marriage has to fulfill the conditions and pillars of marriage.

        Many people do this travel marriages with the intention of divorce if he is in a country where he does not wish to reside but he fears he may commit fornication or adultery.
        And some do this travel marriages to fulfill their sexual needs,just like the Mutah but by travelling.

        There is a fatwa from sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah may Allah have mercy on him was asked in (Fatawa al-Kubra),about a traveler who spends one or two month in each town.He is far away from his wife and fears falling into a sin.Is it permissible for him to get married while residing in that town?And if he travels can he divorce her and give to her her right or not?and is this correct or not?

        Sheikh al-Islam ibn taymiyyah answered(Yes,it permissible for him to get married.But he should marry her without setting a condition of a limit time.It should be a general marriage,if he wishes to divorce her he may do so a well.
        However if has an absolute intention to divorce her after the end of his travel then this is (Disliked),and there is a difference of opinion as to the validity of this marriage.But if he has the intention that if he travels and he likes her and marry her to keep her,but if he does not like her and divorced her,then this permissible.

        But, if he sets a time limit in the marriage contract then this is a temporary marriage which the four Imams and other scholars agree it is Forbidden.)

        travel marriage it is just like the Mutah but it is by traveling he will marry a woman and after the end of his travel he will divorced her.And it also forbidden in Islam,May Allah guide our Ummah.

  4. Isn't it ironic that you consider the Mutah haraam, but said urself the Misyar marriage, which is a similar concept, is halal?? In the Misyar marriage, they live separately as well. How ironic that the same people who condemn the Mut'ah marriage seek other options in their own school of law which they defend passionately.

    • Personally I'm against Misyar marriage as well. I think it is a destructive institution that ruins women's lives and reputations. Some scholars have ruled it halal and some haram; I don't see how it can be anything but haram. Allah knows best.

      Wael
      IslamicAnswers.com Editor

    • Salaams,

      Maybe I missed something...was someone promoting misyar marriage passionately?

      I suppose there are reasons people feel inclined toward it, but personally it seems like selling yourself short. Who would want to settle for a portion of what marriage offers, instead of enjoying it in it's entirety?

      -Amy
      IslamicAnswers.com Editor

  5. What's travel marriage ?

  6. Salaams,

    Just for the sake of clarification, there IS a difference between misyar and mut'ah, even though people sometimes refer to either as "travel" marriages. According to the link I posted above:

    Nikah Misyar (Arabic: المسيار‎) is a Muslim Nikah (marriage) carried out via the normal contractual procedure, with the specificity that the husband and wife give up several rights by their own free will, such as living together, equal division of nights between wives in cases of polygamy, the wife's rights to housing, and maintenance money ("nafaqa"), and the husband's right of homekeeping, and access etc.

    This means the fundemental difference between misyar and mut'ah is the fact that in misyar a couple is married with NO termination pending and are essentially living separately as single people except for when they are visiting one another; whereas in mut'ah the couple marries with a predetermined end-date for the marriage stipulated at the nikkah. Living separately is not inherently a feature of mut'ah, as it is for misyar.

    I feel that if it comes to such a place that a husband (or wife) fears that sin may creep up on them when parted, they should begin to travel together instead of having a misyar marriage. In my mind, the only place for a misyar type of arrangement is when a husband and wife who previously lived together must part company for reasons beyond their control and they decide instead of divorcing to stay married but see each other only as occassions permit. Examples of this could include when a spouse is deployed in another country because of military commitments, when a spouse is incarcerated, when a couple marries but can't live together right away due to financial reasons and are staying with their parents respectively, or any other similar situation. The difference is that in these examples the couple intends to reunite as soon as possible and continue living together in marriage, and in misyar the couple is happy to "live their own lives" indefinitely and just enjoy each other's company at various intervals.

    I am only posting this to clear up any confusion about the difference between misyar and mut'ah.

    -Amy
    IslamicAnswers.com Editor

    • Asalamu Alaikum sister Amy

      Do you mine if I ask that is there any difference between (travel marriage) and (Mutah marriage)?thanks

  7. Well, what if they have children? Would that travel husband be responsible for that? What heppen to the well being of the child? Thats a total injustice to child.

  8. Can you be married to your husband but not live with him? I live in girls dorm at university and he works out of the country. We each other once every two months and spend the entire weekend together. We plan on living together once i achieve my masters degree. Is this allowed?

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