The Concept of Marriage in Islam

Marriage is a social institution as old as the human race itself. It is an important institution of life. Islam recognizes this institution and accepts it as the basis of human society after purging it of all those evils which had penetrated it. 

Firstly, Islam does not regard it as a union only for the gratification of sexual lust, but the social contract with wide and varied responsibilities and duties. The reason behind it is that, according to the Divine Faith, a woman is not a plaything in the hand of man, but a spiritual and moral being who is entrusted to him on the sacred pledge to which Allah is made a witness. The wife is, therefore, not meant to provide sensuous pleasure only to the male, but to fully cooperate with him in making the life of the family and ultimately of the whole humanity significantly meaningful. 

The Holy Qur’an has in so many verses pointed out the different purposes of marriage. It states:

“And of his signs is that He has created wives for you from yourselves that you might find quiet of mind in them, and He put between love and affection. ” (30: 21) 

In this verse it has been said that the female is not inferior to the male in the sense that the former is created out of superior stuff while the latter comes off a base origin. Both man and woman are the progeny of Adam and thus both have the same soul. The purpose of marriage, according to the Holy Qur’an is, therefore, the union of the two souls which are one in essence. Their separate existence is an unnatural state of there being which changes into the natural state when they are United by Marriage and thus are brought close to each other physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

(Reference from- The family laws of Islam by Mohammad Iqbal Siddiqui) 

Insha Allah will continue in the next article.