Why can Muslim men marry Christians and Jews?

Salaam alykum,

First, I’d suggest you read this, insha Allah.

Second, while Islam guarantees the religious freedom and practice of Christian and Jewish wives of Muslim men, the same cannot be said the other way around.

If we look at the Torah and the Bible, both are pretty clear on how they view interfaith marriage:

In Deuteronomy 7.3-4 we get this quite clearly:

“3 neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. 4 For he will turn away thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods; so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and He will destroy thee quickly.”

While in Christianity, specifically in Second Corinthians, Paul writes:

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,” (6:14)

Therefore, set to that backdrop, how can we allow Muslim women to be married to non-Muslim men, when that is the very basis of the relationship?

When all I read on this website is the vulnerability of women, what perils they face, to ignore that vulnerability when we speak about marriage, to me, is beyond naive.

Furthermore, the reason  why Muslim men were allowed to marry non-Muslim women was rooted in practicality. While the Islamic Empires spread very quickly (to the borders of France in 100 years) people in these regions largely stayed non-Muslim.

Egypt was the largest Christian country of the time, and stayed that way for a while (like couple hundred years), so if you’re a Muslim soldier, you’re not catching a cheap flight from kayak.com back to your city, you’re stuck there, because it’ll take you 50 years to go ten feet. So you stay in your new place, and there aren’t Muslim women, so how do you start a family? This was why it was permissible for men.

No jurist would encourage any Muslim man to marry a non-Muslim, mostly because the situation above does not exist, we have planes and can travel easily, but no jurist will make something that is permissible and make it impermissible, that goes against the most fundamental and foundational dictates of Islamic thought.

Also, I also agree with this stance. My rationale, even going beyond the scripture, is based on the post that I linked you to at the very beginning.

Just in case you missed it and are too lazy to scroll back up, you can read that post here, insha Allah.

I pray this reaches you and your families in the best of health and Iman, insha Allah.