What does al-bāʾat mean? Imam an-Nawawī, may Allah have mercy on him, explains
عَنْ عَبْدُ اللهِ بِنْ مَسْعُودٍ رَضِيَ اللهُ تَعالَى عَنْهُ قَالَ: قَالَ لَنَا رَسُولُ اللهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم: {يا مَعْشَرَ الشَّبابِ، مَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ مِنْكُمْ الْبَاءَةَ فَلْيَتَزَوَّجْ. فَإِنَّهُ أَغَضُّ لِلْبَصَرِ وَأَحْصَنُ لِلْفَرْجِ وَمَنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَعَلَيْهِ بالصَّوْمِ فَإِنَّهُ لَهُ وِجَاءٌ.}
It is on the authority of ʿAbdullah ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him, who said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to us, {O gathering
[1] of youth!
[2] Whoever of you is capable of
al-bāʾat, let him get married, for it lowers the gaze and protects the private parts. Whoever is not able to must fast, for it will cut his desire.}’
[3] Agreed upon.
[4]
Imam an-Nawawī: [5] The people of language have said that a
maʿshar is a group of people who are included under one attribute, and thus the youth
(ash-shabāb) are a
maʿshar, the elderly (
ash-shuyūkh) are a
maʿshar, the Prophets are a
maʿshar, women are a
maʿshar, and so on and so forth.
Ash-Shabāb is the plural of
shāb, and other plurals include
shubān,
shababah and
ash-shāb according to our companions,
[6] and it is someone who is an adult
[7] but has not passed thirty years of age.
As for
al-bāʾat, al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ
[8] has mentioned four ways of saying it. The well-known, eloquent way is
al-bāʾat,
[9] with an extension (
madd)
[10] and
hāʾ[11] at the end. The second is
al-bāt,
[12] with no extension. The third is
al-bāʾ[13] with an extension and the fourth is
al-bāhah[14] with two
hāʾ at and no extension. Its original meaning in the language is sexual intercourse and it is derived from the word
al-mubāʾat, which is a residence, and from that we have the expression
mubāʾat al-ibl (camel), i.e. where it lives. Then a marriage contract was called a
bāʾat because when a man marries a woman, he gives her somewhere to live. The scholars have differed as to what
al-bāʾat means here, and there are two positions that go back to one meaning:
The more correct position is that what is meant here is its linguistic meaning, which is sexual intercourse, and thus, what is implied here is that whoever of you is capable of sexual intercourse due to his ability to provide for it, which is to provide for a marriage, let him get married. Whoever is not capable of sexual intercourse due to his inability to provide for it must fast in order to ward off his passions and cut off his evil desires, just as
al-wijāʾ[15] cuts it off. According to this position, this address was given to young men who were presumed to be desiring women and were not separating themselves from them most of the time.
The second position is that what is meant by al-bāʾat here is the provisions of marriage, and it is called by that which accompanies it. The implication is that whoever is capable of the provisions of marriage let him get married. Whoever is not capable let him fast in order to ward off his desires. Those who hold this position were prompted to do so because of his statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, {Whoever is not able to must fast.} They said, ‘The one who is incapable of sexual intercourse does not need to fast in order to ward off his desires. Thus, al-bāʾat must be interpreted to mean provisions.’ The former group respond with what we have already mentioned in the position above, which is that the implication is that whoever is incapable of sexual intercourse due to his inability to provide for it while being in need of sexual intercourse must fast, and Allah knows best.
As for al-wijāʾ, it is to crush the testicles, and what is meant here is that fasting cuts passions and cuts evil desires just as al-wijāʾ does.
This ḥadīth contains a command to marry for the one who is able to and his soul desires it, and this is the consensus. However, according to us
[16] and all scholars, the command is one of recommendation
[17] and not obligation.
[18] Thus, no one is obligated to get married or take a concubine, regardless of whether or not they fear adversity. This is the position of all scholars and no one is known to have obligated it apart from Dāwūd and those who agree with him amongst the Ẓāhiriyyah,
[19] and there is one narration from Aḥmad in which they said that he is obligated to get married or take a concubine if he fears adversity. They have also said that he is only obligated to do it once in his life and some of them did not stipulate that he fear adversity. The Ẓāhiriyyah said that he is only obligated to get married and he is not obligated to have intercourse, and they clung to the outward purport of this ḥadīth as well as other ḥadīths and the Qurʾān. Allah has said,
“…marry other permissible women…” [an-Nisāʾ 4:3] as well as other āyāt, and the majority have used the Exalted One’s statement
“…marry other permissible women…” [an-Nisāʾ 4:3] up until His statement
“…or those you own as slaves” [an-Nisāʾ 4:3] as proof that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, has given a choice between marriage and taking a concubine. Al-Imām al-Māzarī
[20] said, ‘This the majority’s proof that He, Glorified and Exalted is He, has given a choice between marriage and taking a concubine, by consensus, because if marriage were an obligation, He would not have offered a choice between it and taking a concubine. This is because it is not valid according to the scholars of
uṣūl al-fiqh to offer a choice between something obligatory and something else, because that would nullify the reality of the obligation, and the one leaving it would not be sinful. As for his statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, {Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not from me},
[21] the meaning is whoever turns away from it because they renounce it and are not convinced of what it is, and Allah knows best.
As for whether it is better to get married or not, our companions
[22] have said that people fall into four categories:
- The person whose soul desires it and he has the provision[23] for it, and thus it is recommended for him to get married.
- The person whose soul does not desire it and he does not have the provision for it, and thus it is disliked[24] for him.
- The person whose soul desires it and he does not have the provision for it, and thus it is disliked for him, and it is this person who is commanded to fast in order to ward off his desire.
- The person who has the provision for it but not the desire, and the position of ash-Shāfiʿī and the majority of our companions is that leaving marriage and devoting oneself to worship is better for such a person. It is not said that marriage is disliked (makrūh). Rather, leaving it is preferable. The position of Abū Ḥanīfah, some of the followers of ash-Shāfiʿī and some of the followers of Mālik is that marriage is better for him, and Allah knows best.
______________
[4] (tn):
Bulūgh al-Marām min Adillat al-Aḥkām by Imam Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (Al-Manṣūrah: Dār al-Ghadd al-Jadīd, 1426/2005), p.200, and it is the first ḥadīth in the Book of Marriage. It is found in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections of both al-Bukhārī and Muslim.
[5] Translated from
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim bi Sharḥ an-Nawawī (Beirut, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2003/1424), v.9, p.147-149. This ḥadīth is the first ḥadīth in the Book of Marriage in
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and the title of the first chapter in that book is ‘Marriage Is Recommended For The One Whose Soul Desires It And He Has The Provision, And The One Who In Incapable Of Provision Is To Busy Himself With Fasting’.
[6] (tn): i.e. the Shāfiʿīs
[7] Ar.
bāligh, i.e. legally accountable
[8] (tn): i.e. the great Mālikī jurist who died in 544 AH and is buried in Marrakech; his commentary on
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim is called I
kmāl al-Muʿlim bi Fawāʾid Muslim, which is his complement (i.e.
ikmāl) of Imam al-Mazarī’s commentary, mentioned below. Please see
Ikmāl al-Muʿlim bi Fawāʾid Muslim (Al-Manṣūrah: Dār al-Wafāʾ, 1419/1998), v.1, p.72-74.
[10] (tn): i.e. with a hamzah
[11] (tn): i.e. a tāʾ marbūṭah
[15] (tn): this is explained below
[16] (tn): i.e. the Shāfiʿīs
[17] (tn): i.e. one is rewarded for doing it but not punished for leaving it (see
Sharḥ al-Waraqāt fī ʿIlm Uṣūl al-Fiqh by Imam Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Maḥallī ash-Shāfiʿī (Casablanca: Dār ar-Rashād al-Ḥadīthah, 1426/2006), p.5
[18] (tn): i.e. one is rewarded for doing it and punished for leaving it (ibid.)
[19] (tn): i.e. the literalists, a school of law founded by Dāwūd az-Ẓāhirī (d.270 AH) and later died out due to its rigid literalism
[20] (tn): i.e. Imam al-Māzarī is Abū ʿAbdullah Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, d. 536/1141, the great Mālikī of Sicilian origin whose commentary on
Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim is entitled
al-Muʿlim bi Fawāʾid Muslim
[21] (tn): this ḥadīth is also agreed upon (i.e. related by al-Bukhārī and Muslim) and is the second ḥadīth in the Book of Marriage in
Bulūgh al-Marām. The full wording is, {But I pray and I sleep. I fast and I do not fast. I marry women. Whoever turns away from my Sunnah is not from me.}
[22] (tn): i.e. the Shāfiʿīs
[23] (tn): i.e. he possesses the provisions and expenditure for it, such as the dower and the living costs for himself and his wife (see
al-Fiqh al-Manhajī by Imam Muṣṭafā al-Bughā et al. (Damascus, Dār al-Qalam, 1433/2012) v.2. p.13)
[24] Ar.
makrūḥ, i.e. one is rewarded for leaving it but not punished for doing it (
Sharḥ al-Waraqāt, p.5)
