Assalamu alaikum,
The fact of the matter is there is a Quranic verse according to which muta marriage is allowed and there are hadiths from the sahih collections, showing that muta was not forbidden by the Holy Prophet (saw).
Some scholars have come up with an explanation of why it was at first legal and then later banned, but the explanation has serious flaws.
According to this explanation muta marriage was a practice of the days of ignorance and and had to be banned slowly for practical reasons in the same way that alcohol was banned.
The flaw with this explanation is that firstly it makes the assumption that muta marriaga was a practice of the arabs before the advent of Islam, but provides no evidence for this. I read all the hadiths in the first link - which of these hadiths prove that it was a practice from the days of ignorance?
Secondly, while alcohol was not banned straight away it is not mentioned anywhere in the Quran as being allowed, whereas the muta marriage is mentioned as being allowed in the Quran, according to sunni and shia scholars. Why would Allah explicitly allow something in the Quran and then later ban it? If the Quranic verse is accepted as allowing muta marriage then no hadith can cancel that verse. If muta marriage was a bad practice from the days of ignorance then there would not be verse in the Quran allowng it just as there was never a verse in the Quran allowing one to drink alcohol.
To further support this argument is there any hadith in which the Holy Prophet (saw) explicitly permits a person to drink alcohol? No, because even when it was not banned it was not considered to be a good thing and in fact alcohol was never permitted at any time in the history of man. But in the case of muta marriage there are hadiths in which the Holy Prophet (saw) actually explicitly and even advises certain companions to perform it.
Another flaw with the explanation abut muta marriage being a practice from the days of ignorance is that thre are many other very bad practices of the days of ignorance which were not permitted by the Quran or by the Holy Prophet (saw). Why then was muta marriage permitted and these otehr practices not permitted? Why for example was prostitution not permitted? In fact why would the arabs from the days of ignorance practice muta when they could practice muta marriage when they could just visit prostitutes or commit adultery or fornication? Read about the practices of the arabs before Islam and you will see that it makes no sense to say that muta marriage was a practice of the days of ignorance and in fact there is no evidence to support this from history or hadith.
Also the hadiths which show that muta marriage was banned are not consistent with another - why? On which hadith do those who claim muta marriage is haraam base their claim? And why do they reject the hadiths which show that muta marriage is halaal?
Brother Faisal, most people automaticaly reject the idea of muta marriage before even doing any investigation into the matter. Such people look for evidence to back their claim that it is haraam - are such people not biased?
I myself was shocked when I first heard about muta marriage, but instead of making an immediate judgement based on my personal feelings I decided to investigate into the matter andI have come to the conclusion that it is an islamic practice and one that is necessarily halaal.
I have given my reasons why I reject the hadiths that show that the muta marriage was forbidden. On which Quranic verse or hadith do you base the claim that muta marriage is haraam and why do you reject the Quranic verse and the hadiths according to which muta marriage is halaal?
Here are the links again put up by brother Faisal:
http://www.islam.org.au/articles/12/TMPMRIG.HTM
For the shia argument refer to:
http://www.al-islam.org/encyclopedia/chapter6a/
Please go to both as the Quranic verse relating to muta marriage is discussed in both sites.
[Edited by Nur on 26th April 2001 at 12:41]