qatarperegrine | Qatar news: CMU faculty, humidity, rain, temporary wives

This week both faculty and student orientation are taking place at CMU, so suddenly there is life in the hallways again! It is most wonderful. The Peninsula published a list of our new faculty: Carnegie Mellon appoints new faculty members.

In less good news, the weather shifted this weekend. June and July are the hottest months in Doha, but August is more humid. So it's down to around 110, but now with 90% humidity. Residents hit by high humidity. (Check out the accompanying picture if nothing else.)

So what does Qatar do when it's dissatisfied with its natural environment? Silly question; the answer is always We do exactly what Dubai does: MMAA plans to bring artificial rain to Qatar.

And, finally, the Peninsula decries the trend of married men entering temporary marriages in order to have a summer fling: Wife for vacation: Qataris marry poor women just for the holidays! I love how the social worker blames temporary marriages on "the mushrooming of TV channels and information explosion." While American TV may be responsible for much evil in this world, it does seem a bit sketchy to blame Western cable for a form of polygamy sanctioned by Islam and outlawed in the West.

It seemed to me that they weren't referring to muta'ah, since they said the man divorced the woman at the end, and not that the length of the marriage was written into the marriage contract to begin with. But maybe I misunderstand muta'ah?

What does the sunnah say that would prohibit a marriage that both parties expected not to last forever? I don't know much about the topic.

Entering a temporary marriage is haraam in Sunni Islam. In other words, there is no interpretation of the Sunnah that would allow this. During the early days of Islam there were some marriages allowed that filled the needs for those involved in lengthy military campaigns but the conditions that they were sanctioned under no longer exist and thus they are no longer sanctioned.

My husband and I were just discussing temporary marriage last week and he told me of an example where the rulings of the scholars had been misused. At one point a Muslim man studying in the US wrote to Sheikh Abdulaziz Bin Baz and told him that he was in love with an American Christian (who is lawful for him to marry, of course). He was fearful of being able to withstand committing any sins with her and wanted to marry her but his family refused to accept her for him, as they had a cousin already chosen for him. He asked if he could marry her and upon completion of his studies, divorce her when he was returning to Saudi (since his parents would never accept the marriage). Bin Baz told him that the woman was lawful to him and he could marry her but he must try to bring his parents around to accepting the marriage. If, however, they refused and would create such dissension for the woman or problems for her in Saudi Arabia then he could seek divorce. The whole point was that divorce was a legal option when all good intentions had failed. Of course, there were others who took this ruling to mean that the Sheikh had sanctioned "temporary marriages" for men working or studying abroad. Not true.

Now I will have to look into Shi'a muta'ah -- I am a Sunni Muslim -- to see if there is actually a divorce procedure at the end of the marriage period contract. I think there is a process but I am not sure that it is like the triple talaq.

BTW, as for the agricultural activities there are quite a few farm operations, both "plantations" (as they are called if they are raising plants) and of course animal husbandry. The lack of rain has been a huge problem and is helping to drive up prices, further contributing to inflation.

Pray for Rain!

PM

Interesting!! Thanks for the info. That's a really interesting ruling from Sheikh Bin Baz.

Qatar news: CMU faculty, humidity, rain, temporary wives

Re: vacation "marriages"

Re: vacation "marriages"

Re: vacation "marriages"