Marriage: A chosen practice of the
Prophet & those who do not marry
Q341 :I know a Hadith which states clearly that
marriage is part of the Sunnah of the Prophet and whoever turns away
from the Sunnah does not belong to him. In our country, a well-known
person who works hard for the implementation of Islam has never
married. How far would you say that this Hadith applies to this
person?
A341 : The answer is that I do not know. Some of my
readers like to put to me unanswerable questions, like this one. They
may have some justification, but in this case, there seems to be a very
enthusiastic desire on the part of my reader to see a conscientious
implementation of the personal Islamic code by all Muslims,
particularly those who stand up for the cause of Islam. What is
unfortunate about such enthusiasm is that it may lead to the adoption
of a very rigid interpretation of different Islamic rules. The Hadith
states very clearly that marriage is part of the Sunnah of the Prophet.
The term “Sunnah” in Arabic means, “method, way, practice, etc.” In an
Islamic context, it means the practice chosen by the Prophet and
renetmended by him to be followed by all Muslims, to earn additional
reward by Allah. The encouragement by the Prophet may take the form of
a verbal renetmendation or exhortation, or setting a practical example.
If it is the latter, then the more consistently the Prophet used to
follow a particular practice, the stronger is the emphasis that all
Muslims should follow suit. When the renetmendation or encouragement
takes the form of a verbal statement, then we can judge by the emphasis
the Prophet places on his statement the sort of importance he attaches
to it. In the case of marriage, we need only remember the Hadith you
have quoted to realize that the Prophet has attached much importance to
marriage. Nevertheless, when we say that a particular practice is a
Sunnah, we preclude any suggestion that it is obligatory. Let me give
you a very clear example. We know that the Prophet was very keen to
offer two voluntary Rak’ahs, i.e. Sunnah, before the obligatory prayer
of Fajr. Indeed, he is not known to have missed these two Rak’ahs on
any occasion. There can be no stronger encouragement or renetmendation
for us to follow his example. Nevertheless, if we suppose that a Muslim
does not offer these two voluntary rak’ahs at all, throughout his life,
he does not netmit a sin. He will not be asked by Allah why he has not
offered them. Scholars say that the Prophet may remonstrate with him on
the day of Judgment, but reprehensible as his attitude is, it does not
expose him to any punishment in the life to nete. Consider now the
Hadith that you have quoted. The Prophet says that marriage is his
chosen practice. That means that marriage is not obligatory to Muslims.
The Prophet certainly emphasizes greatly the importance he attaches to
this practice, but the person he describes as not belonging to him is
the one who takes a deliberate choice in opposition to the Prophet’s
practice. When we nete to the application of this Hadith to
individuals, we should know where to stop. No one can claim that he
knows the full circumstances and the inner thoughts of another person,
close to him as he may be. This man may have some personal or family
reasons which might have delayed his marriage when he was a young man.
He may still have some personal reasons to prevent him from marriage.
If he does not object to marriage as a principle, then he netmits no
sin. On our part, we should be careful what to say about other people
and we must surely not judge them on appearances.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )