Marriage of Underage Girls in Islam

Marriage of Underage Girls: An investigation of the reasons, effects and the Islamic Perspective

Islam is very keen to regulate all human beings’ relationships, either their relationships to Allah, or among themselves. As marriage institution occupies a high status and a special place in Islam, Islam underscores it as an indispensable basis and a corner stone of the Muslim community. In order to show how marriage is important in Islam, the Qur’an describes this relationship as ‘mithaq ghaleez,’ i.e. firm covenant and also as one of the great signs and favors of Allah to people, as He, Glory be to Him, says, “And among His Signs is this, that He created for you spouses from among yourselves, that you may find repose in them, and He has put between you affection and mercy.” (Qur’an, 30:21)

Islam sets regulations and conditions for marriage to be valid. Notwithstanding these elaborate shar‘i conditions and regulations, Islam allows some space for cultural and social differences with regard to the celebration of marriage, etc. Yet, with the passage of time, and as people’s norms and customs differ from time to time and as the world ceaselessly keeps evolving and advances, personal affairs codes have been edited and updated continuously in order to organize the relationships between people in this regard.

As the relationship between the two spouses require rationality, tranquility and mutual understanding. Laws in most world countries require that the minimum age of marriage for girls be 18 years. But many of these same nations have some kind of exemption to this requirement. For instance, in Australia, if a person is at least 18, their spouse can (with judicial approval) be as young as 16. And in many other countries, such as Iraq, Jamaica and Uruguay, children can marry with parental permission. Only six countries worldwide do not specify a minimum age for marriage. They are Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.[1]

The aim of specifying a minimum age is that a young man or woman can fully understand the objectives of marriage and can shoulder the responsibility of forming a new family. This requires that there should not any union between a child under this age and another child or of-age person. According to the UNICEF, child marriage refers to any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child[2].

Despite this seemingly international unanimity on the prohibition of concluding marriages of underage persons, there are about 12 million girls who get married before the age of 18 each year. In other words, 23 underage girls get married every minute.[3] This phenomenon has detrimental effects and consequences on girls, starting with dropping out from education, which greatly affects the society as a whole. It also includes greater health risks, such as dangerous complications during pregnancy and childbirth, greater probability of suffering from domestic violence.

There are different reasons for the spread of this phenomenon, which include, but not limited to, social norms and practices, poverty, insecurity[4], and religious opinions. We will focus on the last reason in order to present the sound Islamic perspective on this issue.  Some may argue that Islam encourages early marriage and quote in support the various Qur'anic verses, such as (Al-Rum: 21 and al-Nur: 32), and Prophetic hadiths that underscores the importance of marriage and necessity to marry whenever one is capable to.[5] The other argument is that most classical Muslim scholars see that it is permissible to marry the underage girls.

In order to elaborate on the Islamic perspective in this regard, it is important in the very beginning to underline some general principles[6]:

First, Muslim jurist (fuqahaa) agree that the original legal ruling is that marriage is permissible;

Second, in the classical books of Fiqh, there is a difference between concluding the marriage contract and consummation of marriage; and

Third, Muslim fuqahaa agree that it is permissible to restrict mubah (a term denoting an action as neither forbidden nor recommended) for a valid and preponderant interest.

In light of these principles, it is evident that the Qur'anic verses and Prophetic hadiths in this regard communicate that marriage is permissible, provided that its parties are well qualified and physically, financially and psychologically capable of undergoing this experience. Therefore Muslim scholars made it clear that marriage shall not be consummated unless the two spouses are qualified for marriage, even if the marriage contract is concluded beforehand. In fact, there is also a disagreement among Muslim fuqahaa whether a woman's guardian has the right to conclude her marriage contract while she is still underage or not.[7] Muslim Fuqahaa disagree also on the point of specifying a minimum age for marriage. Yet, the preponderant opinion is that it is permissible for waliy al-Amr (the legislative bodies) to specify a minimum age as long as it serves a valid shar'i interest[8].  

In conclusion, we see that as it has been proven that marriage of underage girls has detrimental effects on girls and, by necessity, on the community at large, there should be collective effort and activity towards the elimination of this phenomenon. This means that concerted efforts should be exerted by the international bodies, religious leaders, and world leaders as well as all educational, political and judicial institutions in order to put an end to this epidemic.