The Minimum Legal Age for Marriage in Family Laws of Muslim Countries—A Critical Analysis

Abstract
Marriage has always been a part and parcel of human life. In this regard, Islam being the religion of nature has graced the humanity by giving injunctions that bind the institution of family and ensure the dignity of both male and female. Muslim countries after getting freedom from colonialist rulers have enacted family laws based on Sharī’ah. Traces of modernism and western family laws are found in these laws as many contradictions to Sharī’ah can easily be marked. A new concept of declaring minimum legal age for marriage has been introduced. This research paper presents a critical analysis of this law covering almost all family laws of Muslim countries and . The authors have established the research question that whether declaring a minimum legal age for marriage is advocated by Islamic Sharī’ah and what are those elements that have been observed in forming minimum legal age. This paper concludes that although child marriage is allowed in Sharī’ah as at least two incidents of this kind of marriage have been transmitted from prophetic age but like many other practices these incidents reveal only the legitimacy of this marriage. The principle of Ṣadd al-Ẓarāi’ (Blocking the Means) allows to ban child marriage as Walī (the guardian) in many cases misuse his authority.

Hafiz Abdul Basit Khan, Shabbir Ahmad. (2021) مسلم ممالک کے عائلی قوانین میں نکاح کےلیے مطلوب قانونی عمر۔ایک تنقیدی جائزہ, AFKĀR (Journal of Islamic & Religious Studies) , Volume 5, Issue 1.
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