Critical Evaluation of the Affinity of Mother-in-Law Due to a Minor Marriage

Some pious Muslims, every now and then, find it necessary to merely have the relationship of affinity with a married woman for some reason. One of the ways that is usually resorted to is to marry the woman’s minor daughter, so that she, as the mother-in-law, would become Mahram. This action has created the suspicion of minor marriage. The famous opinion among jurisprudents is to consider even a temporary, momentary marriage with a minor to be the cause of affinity of the motherin- law and thus to approve this method from the viewpoint of jurisprudence. Some other jurisprudents, however, regard the girl’s enjoyableness as a condition for the realization of affinity. This descriptive-analytical article proves that, regardless of the possible individual, social, and familial harms or being ethically justified or not, the aforementioned solution is flawed since evidence indicates that affinity of the motherin- law is conditional upon the wife’s enjoyableness. Minor marriage, therefore, does not cause affinity of the mother-in-law.