Ali Khamenei: Marriage with Christian Women Only Permissible on Temporary Basis
Ali Khamenei deemed marriage with Christian women on a temporary basis to be permissible.
According to “Muballagh,” Ali Khamenei, in response to the question “Is it correct for a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman or for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian man,” stated: “Marriage on a permanent or temporary basis between a Muslim woman and a Christian man is invalid, and similarly, permanent marriage between a Muslim man and a Christian woman is invalid based on obligatory precaution; however, temporary marriage between a Muslim man and a Christian woman, with observance of religious conditions, poses no obstacle. Regarding marriage between Muslim women or men with other People of the Book, the aforementioned rulings apply.”
According to Islamic law and jurisprudence, a disbeliever is of two types: a disbeliever from the People of the Book and a disbeliever not from the People of the Book. According to the view of all Shia jurisprudential authorities, a Muslim man cannot have permanent or temporary marriage with women disbelievers not from the People of the Book. According to the ruling of Ayatollah Khomeini, regarding permanent marriage with women disbelievers from the People of the Book, obligatory precaution applies, meaning that his followers can follow the ruling of another jurisprudent who has issued a ruling on this matter and deems such marriage permissible.
According to the view of all jurisprudential authorities from the past to present, temporary marriage with women disbelievers from the People of the Book is permissible, and marriage to a virgin Christian woman depends on their religion, and if permission of the father is not required in their religion, it is not necessary to obtain his permission.
Similarly, based on the rulings of Shia jurisprudential authorities, Muslim men have the right to marry non-Muslim women who are “People of the Book,” but here discrimination specific to Muslim women persists. They do not have the right to marry non-Muslim men, and should they commit this crime, which is contrary to Islamic law, their blood becomes permissible.
The rulings issued by Shia jurisprudential authorities regarding temporary marriage with Christian women, whom they call disbelievers, come at a time when temporary marriage does not exist in Christianity or in the Christian scriptures, and God considers the union of man and woman in marriage to be one. Temporary marriage exists in the Islamic religion and religious law, which people recently refer to as “legal fornication,” because in this type of marriage not only is responsibility not assumed, but after the specified period for this type of marriage, the woman and man return to their former lives, wherein women bear the greatest harm in this regard, which will bring subsequent harms as well.
