# Did Imam Malik allow marriage to be consummated with a girl who was not yet nubile?

*Imam Malik's fatwa, the fatwas of men shaped by patriarchy, and the commentators who did not include girls*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t-x4lyns2ve/s/9/
- Date: 2019-07-25 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: A Reply to Abdullah Sameer's Allegation: The Quran Teaches Paedophilia | Mufti Abu Layth (27:19–29:58)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-X4Lyns2vE&t=1639s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t-x4lyns2ve/

**Topics:** The marriage contract; Contested verses; Legal theory and method

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** No: Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik's fatwa was clear that sexual relations with a wife are haram unless she is nubile. Scholars who read 65:4 to include girls were men influenced by the patriarchy of their age and were wrong, while others such as Ibn Ashur, al-Samarqandi, Abu Hayyan and al-Alusi did not read it so.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that Imam Malik ruled sexual relations with a wife haram unless she was nubile, and that the commentators who read 65:4 to include girls were wrong and influenced by the patriarchy of their age, which is not Islam.

**Evidence, his words at 27:59:** “Imam Malik was very clear in his fatwa that it was Haram right to have to have any kind of sexual relationship with any with a woman I mean through marriage unless she was nubile” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-X4Lyns2vE&t=1679s)

## Longer summary

Finishing the point on pregnancy, Mufti Abu Layth says that if the verse concerned a child nobody would expect her to be pregnant, so the reading is stupid; he accepts that quite a few Muslim scholars wrote it in their books, but it is not in the Quran or the Sunnah, as the verse-by-verse reading has shown. He says Imam Malik was very clear in his fatwa that any sexual relationship with a wife was haram unless she was nubile. He stresses that fatwas are issued by men, as he himself issues them as a mufti, and that some fatwas of the past were wrong or influenced by the global patriarchy in which their authors lived, which does not make them Islam. Where scholars said it, he says, Muslims should accept that they were wrong, while noting that other scholars did not: he recaps Ibn Ashur, al-Samarqandi, who speaks only of old women, Abu Hayyan, who records the view about young age but refers the phrase to illness, and al-Alusi. He concludes that the Quran categorically addresses the divorced as women because that is what they are.

## Sources and names cited

- Quran 65:4 (those who have despaired of menstruation, if you are in doubt, their iddah is three months, and those who have not menstruated; the pregnant until they give birth): https://quran.com/65/4
- Imam Malik
- fatwa
- Ibn Ashur
- Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi
- Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi
- al-Alusi
- nisa (women)

## Transcript (machine tier, 27:19–29:58)

[26:40] what if okay what if the dimensional cycle isn't so apparent what if you're not so sure what if they don't have regular cycles what if they're pregnant what should you do now tell me if it was if they trying to say this was a little girl why would you think that the little girl was pregnant anyway why would they think that they wouldn't think that a six-year-old was pregnant anyway so what would be the purpose of saying oh let her sit and either just in case go straight after it straight after II Allah says and what we'll have to laugh

[27:19] Miley RG Luna and if they have pregnancy then there is still childbirth if you thought it's a child then you wouldn't be expecting the child to be pregnant so this is stupid but yes yes we have to accept that unfortunately some scholars there's been quite a few Muslim scholars have written that in their books it's not in the Quran it's not in the in the Sunnah it's if you look at the whole verses of the Quran the verses of the Quran that I've read them verse by verse and demonstrate

[27:59] and shown to you that look it's very clear what the verses are speaking about Imam Malik was very clear in his fatwa that it was Haram right to have to have any kind of sexual relationship with any with a woman I mean through marriage unless she was nubile he's very clear about that in his fourth hour now what I'm trying to say is the Fatah WA of men men that make up fat ones like I'm a Mufti I could I do issue fatwas like that in the past there were many scholars the only she thought was just because some of their fat hour were

[28:38] wacko or worse were influenced by the the kind of Oh the kind that the global patriarchy in which they lived doesn't mean that was Islam so yes if scholars have said it we will accept that that's wrong if they said but there were other scholars that didn't say it if not sure I highlighted these these more for city and that demonstrate they don't mention some of the summer countries only about old women you see a bhai yen highlighting although he say some people have said about this being young age but he says

[29:18] about oh it's about illness people that don't get and Meza fee quotes him as well on sorry Lucy also calls manga but yes just because scholars have said things like that wherever they've been wrong will accept that they were wrong but that is not Allah and it is not his messenger and that is men and their opinions who was subject and influenced by they day and age so I hope that shed some light the Quran categorically addresses the wives here divorce as women because they are women at that stage right it does not say but not it

[29:57] does not say you know Fateh yet even in this it could have said Fatiha to be fair because what the earth can still be girls in their late teens and things like this but here it actually addressed them as women okay so and you definitely in Arabic do not refer to little girls as women just as you do not refer to little boys Oh lad as a region right so I hope that sheds enough light so we you've got and there's a no Sully principle that we something has is Matta shabbiha so you've got this verse here saying and those who do not have their

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment T-X4Lyns2vE/s/9. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/t-x4lyns2ve/s/9/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.