Is Temporary Marriage Immoral?

Some Sunnis like to mention how in their eyes Mutah is immoral, and is nothing more than prostitution, despite the fact it is impermissible to contract a fixed-term or permanent marriage contract with a prostitute.

Question: Is it permissible to marry a lewd woman (prostitute)?

Answer: If a woman is known as a lewd person, it will not be permissible to marry her till she has genuinely repented, and similarly, it is not permissible to marry a man known for his lustful character, till he has genuinely repented.
(Ayatollah Sistani)

It is also mentioned that there exists prostitution houses in Tehran operating under the guise of Mutah, despite the fact a two-month waiting period has to be observed after the expiry of the union. We thus notice that many temporary marriage contracts are in fact illegitimate, and it is certainly an institution which can be easily abused, like many other practices in Islam. If we were to look at the Sunni practice of the three-time divorce, in which a wife is divorced from her husband after he simply says “I divorce you” three times, we would see that this has indeed caused a lot of struggle for the women and is one of main points which the non-Muslims target and label as oppressive to women, and backward.

The Sunni angst and attitude against Mutah truly embodies the infamous proverb “Do not throw stones when you live in the glass house”. Let us flick through the pages of Sahih Muslim, the second most prestigious and authentic Hadith book in their sect, and look at how they have hadiths demeaning the Prophet Mohammed:

Sahih Muslim
Book 008, Number 3424:

' A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Sahla bint Suhail came to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, I see on the face of Abu Hudhaifa (signs of disgust) on entering of Salim (who is an ally) into (our house), whereupon Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: Suckle him. She said: How can I suckle him as he is a grown-up man? Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) smiled and said: I already know that he is a young man 'Amr has made this addition in his narration that he participated in the Battle of Badr and in the narration of Ibn 'Umar (the words are): Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) laughed.

Sahih Muslim
Book 008, Number 3425:

'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Salim, the freed slave of Abu Hadhaifa, lived with him and his family in their house. She (i. e. the daughter of Suhail came to Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) and said: Salim has attained (purbety) as men attain, and he understands what they understand, and he enters our house freely, I, however, perceive that something (rankles) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa, whereupon Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said to her: Suckle him and you would become unlawful for him, and (the rankling) which Abu Hudhaifa feels in his heart will disappear. She returned and said: So I suckled him, and what (was there) in the heart of Abu Hudhaifa disappeared.

Sahih Muslim
Book 008, Number 3429:

Umm Salama, the wife of Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him), used to say that all wives of Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) disclaimed the idea that one with this type of fosterage (having been suckled after the proper period) should come to them. and said to 'A'isha: By Allah, we do not find this but a sort of concession given by Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) only for Salim, and no one was ging to be allowed to enter (our houses) with this type of fosterage and we do not subscribe to this view.

Allahu Akbar. How can this behaviour be expected of Muslims, and of Arabs? This is against the religion, and the culture, and the fitra. 

The role of temporary marriage

Islam, the perfect and complete religion of God, is undoubtedly a doctor for the social problems and issues faced by communities and individuals. One of these issues, and perhaps the most significant, is the natural feeling of sexual desire. Allah has prescribed the solution, so to speak, for the channeling of sexual desire in the form of marriage of the opposite gender, and if not only one wife, two or three or four. However, permanent marriage, as many of the brothers and sisters would be very much aware, is a rather convoluted process unfortunately. Despite the Prophetic advice of marrying young, we find in the Muslim communities a widespread problem involving finance, age and other issues which force the young Muslim man to suppress his sexual desire until he reaches his late-twenties or thirties, when it finally becomes feasible for him to marry.

When permanent marriage is the only legitimate means to have sex, and you live in a community where heterosexual relationships begin at the average age of 15, and when you are bombarded with sexual innuendos and media every day, and when permanent marriage is sadly a distant possibility (we see this problem manifest in both the West and in the lands of the Muslims), then most commonly than not the man or the woman, who are otherwise good Muslims, turn to sin. I do not want to sound melodramatic, but if you are 23 and unmarried it is indeed very likely you have sinned with yourself a number of times, an act which is greater in the eyes of the Lord than we can ever imagine. Brothers from our community are already adopting the western lifestyle and are dating girls. We find that in Morocco 50% of people have had sex before marriage, and there are similar statistics for the rest of the Arab World. The number of AIDS sufferers in Saudi Arabia numbers a staggering 100,000 people, according to the most conservative estimates. Homosexuality is steadily on the rise in the Arab world, as are sex crimes such as rape. The cause of all these problems is the inability for the mature man to channel his sexual feeling and desire into halal; to avoid adultery and committing sin. We find this channel in Mutah. In the words of the great companion, Ibn Abbas, Mutah is nothing but a mercy from Allah. It is certainly a mercy and a blessing for our youth who desperately wish to protect their private parts and get married, but conditions prevent them from that. We ask you, o dear reader, what is worse? A – Doing Mutah or B – Committing Adultery. Open your eyes, and broaden your horizons. This is the religion of intellect, and mercy, and humanity, and compassion. Temporary marriage is the solution for solving the “problem” that all humans “suffer” from, that of the flesh. There are obvious conditions and regulations one must follow. It’s a blessing from Allah, but it may have side effects if abused. It is also important to keep in mind that temporary marriage isn’t always a short-term arrangement to solve carnal problems. There are many other situations in which Mutah is positively used. For instance, if one’s female study partner is a woman, Mutah is quickly contracted so that they can be together in the same room. An elderly lady may require someone to transport her and there are indeed many other situations.

The Position of Temporary Marriage in Shia Islam

Temporary marriage is permissible according to the consensus of the Ja’afari school. Unfortunately, we find some Sunni propagandists resorting to worthless tactics in their war of propaganda and hatred, and try and demonize the position of temporary marriage in Shia Islam, and another tactic employed is trying to cast doubt on its permissibility in Jaafari fiqh.

Imam Ali said, “Temporary Marriage and Donkey Meat were made forbidden by the Prophet on the Day of Khaybar” (Tahdhib al-Ahkam, Volume 7, Page 251)
 

Do Shias consider this Hadith authentic, and do they claim Imam Ali was saying this in taqiyyah?

The above hadith found in Tahdhib al-Ahkam of Sheikh Tusi, as well as in the two Sunni sahihs, is fabricated. Imam Ali did not say that at all.
The chain of narrators contains Amro Ibn Khaled, who is a Sunni, and Hussain Ibn Alwan, who is also a Sunni. Furthermore, there is a large gap between the sub-narrator and Imam Ali, and it is not possible for him to have heard him say this.
Imam Khoei said in his book, The Prolegomena to the Quran on page 322, “What has been narrated from Imam Ali on the prohibition of Mutah is completely fabricated”.
As for the question of taqiyyah, it has been mentioned by Sheikh al-Tusi in his comments on this hadith, that the individual who was doing taqiyyah (dissimulation) in narrating this hadith, was the Shia narrator Zaid, who narrated this hadith due to pressures from the tyrannical government and their oppression of the adherents of Shia Islam.

Mohammed Kashani writes in Al-Wafi,
"Attributing taqiyah to the commander of the Faithful in relation to such a narration is impossible, but is possible if it is attributed to some of the narrators"
(Volume 3 Page 55)