Nikah mut'ah, temporary marriage, is a contract for a fixed period of time with an agreed dower, distinct from ordinary permanent marriage and from polygyny; when the term expires the marriage ends automatically without divorce. All four Sunni schools hold it prohibited and abrogated, citing hadith in which the Prophet himself forbids it, most notably at Khaybar. Twelver Shia jurisprudence, the Ja'fari school, holds it lawful, grounded in Qur'an 4:24 and hadith from Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, and holds that the Prophet never banned it, attributing the later prohibition instead to the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab. Zaydi Shia jurisprudence sides with the Sunni schools in prohibiting it.
Facts
Origins
Historical OriginSourced to the subject's own accountNikah mut'ah is a pre-Islamic Arabian custom, not an invention of the early Islamic period; Sunni and Shia scholars agree it existed before Muhammad's mission. The arrangement served travelling merchants, who would contract a temporary marriage in a town where trade kept them for weeks or months, giving both parties a recognised domestic arrangement for the stay. The custom is described as functionally obsolete today given the availability of fast travel, though it survives as a live legal and doctrinal question rather than a historical curiosity. 1 Controversy
Point in DisputeSourced to the subject's own accountThe dispute turns on whether the caliph Umar had the standing to prohibit what Muhammad had allowed. Shia sources report that Umar's own ban met opposition from senior companions at the time, naming Imran ibn Husain and Abd Allah ibn Umar among those who continued to hold the practice permitted; Sunni sources read the same ban as a lawful clarification of the Prophet's own final position. 1 Structure
StructureSourced to the subject's own accountTwelver Shia jurisprudence sets specific conditions for a valid contract: the marriage's duration and its dower, the mahr, must be agreed and stated in advance, and the bride must not already be married. Duration is flexible by design, documented as ranging from a single hour to as long as ninety nine years, with jurists divided over what the shortest permissible term should be. A waiting period, the iddah, after the marriage ends serves the same purpose it serves after any marriage's dissolution, establishing paternity with certainty for any child born of it. 1 Tradition
Scriptural BasisSourced to the subject's own accountQuran 4:24 sits at the center of the scriptural dispute, called the verse of Mut'ah by Shia scholars, who read it as scriptural sanction for temporary marriage. Sunni scholars do not dispute the verse's early application to mut'ah but hold that a later prohibition supersedes it; Shia scholars hold no valid abrogation ever occurred. 1 Status
Status Within the TraditionSourced to the subject's own accountThe teaching of one school or lineage within the tradition 1Tradition: Twelver Shia Islam Status Within the TraditionSourced to the subject's own accountRejected, or not held, within this tradition 1Tradition: Sunni Islam Legal StatusSourced to the subject's own accountIran is the clearest example of a modern state that permits and regulates temporary marriage in law, while the practice remains culturally marginal there and is widely dismissed in ordinary usage as indistinguishable from prostitution, a tension between the doctrine's legal standing and its social reception. 1 Position Profile
Key TextSourced to the subject's own accountTwo hadith reports anchor the Sunni prohibition, both attributed to Ali correcting the companion Ibn Abbas: Sahih al-Bukhari 4216, Allah's Messenger forbade the Mut'a, that is temporary marriage, and the eating of donkey-meat, at the battle of Khaibar, and Sahih Muslim 1407, which places the same prohibition on the Day of Khaibar and calls it forbidden forever. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Positions on This Question
The Ja'fari school holds nikah mut'ah lawful, grounded in Qur'an 4:24 and hadith from Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, and holds the Prophet never banned it.
Rejected Here
Sunni, Denominations All four Sunni schools hold nikah mut'ah abrogated, citing hadith attributing the prohibition to the Prophet himself at Khaybar.
Sources
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