Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquila
I've read a few things on it. Can you share what you know about it?
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I first heard the term 'mutah' in Saudi. A friend from work was telling us about his mom and sisters searching for a wife for him and another friend was teasing him about stopping in the town of Qatif for 'mutah' if he felt he needed to get married.
Qatif is a shia town that makes the news from time to time when they have protests.
So I asked what is 'mutah' and my friend said it is 'marriage' for a night or weekend.
I asked my wife about it at the time and she had never heard of it but thought it was funny.
So, the way I was told it works, is that you declare intention between yourselves, gum up a marriage contract, pay mahr to the girl, and enjoy the benefits of marriage for the period of the contract. As far as I can tell its no different from calling an escort out for a weekend.
That's all I know. I've never been interested enough to formally look into it. It's deeply frowned on or made fun of in Saudi Sunni culture and if they do it it is either very rare or they don't talk about it. I never heard a reference to it in the US Muslim community nor did my wife in Indonesia where she grew up, raised in Islamic household, went to Islamic schools, etc.
I did look it up a few weeks ago and read that in Sunni Islam you can marry for a fixed period of time but their interpretation of Islamic law is that you have to follow the standard rules of divorce and end the marriage as it is outlined in the Quran. Stay apart and support your wife for 3 months before you are formally divorced, children are treated the same way that they are for a permanent marriage, and so on. In Shia Islam both parties walk away at the contracted end of the marriage and move on.