14. Marriage with Minor Girls |
There are some scholars who make the fourth verse of Surah 65 of Surah Talaq as basis of their opinion that Islam has allowed marriage and its consummation with minor girls. This is an erroneous conclusion. Marriage with minor girls is an issue which has not been discussed by the Qur’an at all.
However, the referred verse has nothing to do with this issue. If the linguistic principles of the Arabic language are taken into consideration, the correct translation of the last part of this verse is:
وَاللَّائِي يَئِسْنَ مِنَ الْمَحِيضِ مِن نِّسَائِكُمْ إِنِ ارْتَبْتُمْ فَعِدَّتُهُنَّ ثَلَاثَةُ أَشْهُرٍ وَاللَّائِي لَمْ يَحِضْنَ (4:65)
And those of your women who have ceased menstruating and those women whose menstrual courses have not begun in spite of the fact that they have reached the age in which women normally have menses, their waiting period is three months as well. (65:4)
This translation stems from the fact that the Arabic particle used for negation in this verse is Lamm (لَمْ) and not Ma (مَا). The verse is generally translated by disregarding this subtle difference as:
وَاللَّائِي يَئِسْنَ مِنَ الْمَحِيضِ مِن نِّسَائِكُمْ إِنِ ارْتَبْتُمْ فَعِدَّتُهُنَّ ثَلَاثَةُ أَشْهُرٍ وَاللَّائِي لَمْ يَحِضْنَ (4:65)
And those of your women who have ceased menstruating and those women whose menstrual courses have not begun, their waiting period is three months as well. (65:4)
Consequently, it is generally construed that in this verse the ‘Iddat (waiting period) of those divorced women (girls more so) is stated who have yet to reach the age of puberty. So the proponents of this view infer that Islam allows marriage with minor girls.