Child marriage in the light of objectives of Shari’ah and Islamic jurisprudence (An Analytical study of prevalent practices in Pakistani Society)

Abstract

Islam envisages marriage as a source of productivity and prosperity for mankind. This is a legal contract between two mature persons, thus it must be in harmony with the objectives of Islamic Shari’ah namely the protection of lineage and protection of honour. Marriage as a pivotal part of an Islamic society must fulfill the before-mentioned objectives of Shari’ah. Among other concerns regarding the matter of marriage, one of the important is the issue of child marriage. Keeping that in view, this study has analyzed whether child marriage fulfills these objectives or not or at what cost. Further, this study has figured out the opinions of four jurists of Islam regarding the issue at hand and has provided a synthesized solution.  This research has also delved into highlighting the possible factors leading to child marriage in Pakistani society, and the pros and cons of child marriage. The descriptive and analytical methodology has been used in this study. Moreover, suggestions are put forth to deal with the primary concerns of child marriage in the light of Islamic Sharia’.