A Content Analysis of Nikāh al-Mut’ah Narratives According to Shia Hadith Sources

One of the distinctive issues of Shia is Nikāh al-Mut’ah or temporary marriage. There are one hundred thirty seven narratives in Shia sources in which directly deal with the issue and present it in detail as well as its legal rules and conditions. Mut’ah, its legal allowance, and conditions are a sensitive area of disagreement in Muslim societies. Thus, we seek to explore the issue in Shia narratives through the content analysis method. In this regard, first, we recognize and extract twenty related titles and three hundred forty one subtitles of the issue mentioned in the narratives, and then we classify the data into three topics of Holiiat (allowance), legal conditions, and Hormat (prohibition) and analyze them qualitatively. The findings indicate that the legal allowance of al-Mut’ah is reflected directly or indirectly in narratives with high plenty of 97%. In addition, we interpret the narratives that forbid the Nikāh or fail to understand the rules of Nikāh in a way that avoids any misrepresentation of Islam.