Child Marriage in the Qur'an: Difference between revisions

The Qur'an stipulates a waiting period which women must observe before they can remarry when their current marriage ends, either by divorce or by the death of their husband. In the Qur'an, this is called '<nowiki/>''[[Iddah]]'' or '''Iddat'' (العدة‎), a word which at its base merely means a "period of time." However, there is one exception to this requirement in Qur'an 33:49:

After the mention of women who have not had their marriage consummated, the Qur'an goes further - discussing the women who need to observe the 'iddah, and the span of time required. The Qur'an says in 65:4:  

#First the phrase: “Ya'isna min al-maheedhi” يئسن من المحيض which means “those women who are desperate of menses” is an indication to women who reached the stage of menstruation but do not menstruate and of those who reached menopause. Desperate of menses underlines that it concerns women who though reached the age, fail to menstruate too. Their 'Iddah period is three months.

{{Quote|{{Quran|65|4}}| {{right|

واللائي لم يحضن

"and those who never had menses" }}  

The transliteration of this part of the verse and the meaning of each portion of the verse is given below:

''واللائي لم يحضن"''  

Thus ''lam Yadrus لم يدرس'' = He did not study. The verb is in the imperfect tense, but the particle ''lam'' لم conveys a meaning of a simple, negated past, whereas لن يدرس ''lan yadrusa''=he will not study, with ''lan'' لن carrying the negative, future meaning of "will not." 

The imperfective verb in the with the negation particle ''lam'' ( <font size="3">لَمْ </font> ) (indicating a past-tense meaning) is in the [[w:Grammatical mood#Jussive|Jussive]] mood(يعني المضارع المجزوم). <ref name="EB" /> The verb in this clause is likewise in the jussive mood.

From the Lexicon, Arabic word for Menstruate is 'HaiD' ({{arabic|حيض}}):

It thus follows that 65:4 is describing the state of women have not yet menstruated, which would logically includes children or girls before puberty or attainment of [[w:menarche|menarche]] (first period). This implication, as seen below, was also drawn by the majors [[tafsir|tafsirs]].  

The exact translation of this portion of {{Quran|65|4}} is thus ''"Not menstruated yet"'' ( <font size="4">لَمْ يَحِضْنَ</font> ). In Arabic, the menstruation process is called HaiD( <font size="4">حيض</font> ), and the verb for "to menstruate" is yaHiD( <font size="4">يَحِض</font> ), with the noun likely being derivative of the verb (as with most but not all derivations in Arabic). The ''lam'' ( <font size="4">لَمْ  </font> )clearly shows that the verb refers to women who menstruated, and the na ( <font size="4">نَ</font> ) at the end of the verb drives home the point that this verb speaks of women, as it indicates that the verb refers to a group of women as the subject of the verb. “Not menstruated yet” or some other translation that carries the meaning of girls who have not yet menstruated would be the only acceptable English translations.

This verse 65:4 is read by the tafsirs as a continuation of Qur'an 33:49. A question that naturally arises from these verses, and which was more or less answered by the mufassiruun, is 'if a woman who has not had sex should not have to observe any 'iddah at all, as mentioned in 33:49, why does 65:4 specifically mention a waiting period for women who have not had any menstruation at all?' Since lawful shari'i sex can only happen with a free, believing woman if she is married, and since a woman has to be married first in order to be divorced, the answer seems to be that marrying pre-pubescent girls and having sex with them is sanctioned by the Qur'an.

  روي أن ناساً قالوا: قد عرفنا عدة ذوات الأقراء، فما عدة اللائي لا يحضن؛ فنزلت: فمعنى  إِنِ ٱرْتَبْتُمْ }: إن أشكل عليكم حكمهن وجهلتم كيف يعتددن فهذا حكمهنّ، وقيل: إن ارتبتم في ذم البالغات مبلغ اليأس وقد قدروه بستين سنة وبخمس وخمسين، أهو دم حيض أو استحاضة؟ { فَعِدَّتُهُنَّ ثَلَـٰثَةُ أَشْهُرٍ } وإذا كانت هذه عدة المرتاب بها، فغير المرتاب بها أولى بذلك '''{ وَٱلَّٰۤئى لَمْ يَحِضْنَ }''' هن الصغائر''' }} }}

{{quote |1=[http://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=0&tTafsirNo=3&tSoraNo=65&tAyahNo=4&tDisplay=yes&Page=7&Size=1&LanguageId=1 Qur'an 65:4]<BR>Tabrasi|2= {{right|

{ واللآئي لم يحضن } تقديره واللآئي لم يحضن إن ارتبتم فعدتهن أيضاً ثلاثة أشهر وحذف لدلالة الكلام الأول عليه وهن اللواتي '''لم يبلغن''' المحيض ومثلهن تحيض على ما مرَّ بيانه.}} }}

Some du'aah have advanced the idea that this verse speaks only of women who do not know that they are pregnant. Yet this understanding flies in the face of the clear meaning of the text and in the face of over a thousand years of interpretive tradition. According to the tradition, the very reason 65:4 was revealed in the first place was as a clarification to an existing Quranic verse (according to the orthodox chronology). In this orthodox view, Allah had already revealed that women must wait 3 menstrual periods before they can end the 'iddah and be free to marry again. This is in Qur'an 2:228:

However, after this, Muslim men went to Muhammad to ask about those who did not presently have their menses - how do they measure the 'iddah in those cases? It is in this circumstance that Allah sent down the clarification (65:4) for the three groups of women that did not have menstruation, therefore they could not wait the '3 menstrual cycles' as mandated by Qur'an 2:228.

 

 

 

 

This anecdote shows that the text here specifically excludes all mature women who had had at least one menstruation from the purview of this verse. This also shows how the fuquhaa' (Islamic jurists) had to deal with the case of women who had had one menstruation but them were medically incapable of having another, a case not covered in the Qur'an.