Islamic Fiqh > Marriage and family > Mut'a: temporary marriage is void
Marriage with a fixed term and set dower without inheritance: why the 4 schools declare it void, with the texts of its abrogation.
Marriage set for a fixed term, the nikah al-mut'a, is void by agreement of the jurists of the 4 schools: the Prophet forbade it, and the prohibition is final, "Allah has forbidden mut'a until the Day of resurrection" (al-Bukhari 4825; Muslim 1406, 1407). It creates neither inheritance between the spouses, nor waiting period, nor maintenance: the woman of a temporary union is neither a wife in the Book's sense nor a captive (al-Ma'arij 29-31). Do not confuse it with the divorce mut'a, the parting gift owed to the wife divorced before consummation (al-Baqara 236), a compensation for separation after a valid marriage. Any plan that sets an expiry or hides a duration is not a nikah.
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Updated on 07 October 2026 at 6:42 PM
Fixing a marriage to a duration is invalid, by agreement of the jurists of the 4 schools: this is the nikah al-mut'a, the temporary marriage the Prophet forbade. Several Companions reported it.
Ali ibn Abi Talib said to Ibn Abbas: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) forbade mut'a and the meat of domestic donkeys on the day of Khaybar.
al-Bukhari 4825 ; Muslim 1407
The Prophet forbade the nikah al-mut'a, and on the day of the conquest of Mecca he forbade the mut'a of women.
Muslim 1406
Rabi' ibn Sabra tells that during the farewell pilgrimage, a man had married a woman for 10 pieces of cloth with a fixed term; the next day, the Prophet declared from his pulpit: "Whoever among you married a woman for a term, let him give her what he stipulated". The temporary marriage was then closed forever: "Allah has forbidden mut'a until the Day of resurrection".
Marriage, for the scholars, carries rules that define a wife: inheritance between the 2, the waiting period after death or divorce, revocability, maintenance. None of this exists in a fixed-term marriage: the woman leaving it inherits nothing, has no waiting period and no maintenance. The Quran closes the file: "those who guard their chastity, except from their wives or those their right hands possess: they are then blameless; whoever seeks beyond that, those are the transgressors" (al-Ma'arij 29-31). The woman of a temporary union is neither a wife in the Book's sense nor a captive.
Another term, the divorce mut'a, designates the parting gift owed to a wife divorced before consummation, by virtue of: "And provide for them, the wealthy according to his capacity" (al-Baqara 236). Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis impose it as a duty measured by custom; Malikis and a Hanbali narration impose half the mahr of her like. It is a compensation for separation after a valid marriage: it has nothing to do with the temporary marriage, which is void from start to end.
Any matrimonial plan that sets an expiry, hides a duration or includes an automatic exit is not a nikah: it creates neither lineage nor rights. To marry is to commit for the long term; for a specific case, consult a scholar.