Analysis and Critique of the Prohibition of Marriage between a Shiite Girl and a Sunni Man from the Perspective of Javaheri Jurisprudence and New Scientific Findings

One of the challenges of Shiite families especially in Sunni areas is the marriage of a Shiite girl with a Sunni man. This issue is under the more general title “the permissibility of the marriage of a Shiite with an Opponent”; the main question of this paper is: what is the imperative rule of the marriage of an Imami woman with a Sunni man? The Jurists have raised this issue in the chapter concerning the conditions of the couples and parity of status between parties to marriage. They have usually mentioned the two features of being co-religionist and the ability to provide alimony as the conditions of parity of status between parties to marriage and then explained the necessity of being of the same sect. There exist three opinions about the permissibility of marriage between a Shiite girl and a Sunni man: absolute permissibility, absolute impermissibility and permissibility with karahah (abomination). The famous jurists believe that it is impermissible and their main arguments, besides clamming consensus, are the opponents’ disbelief and nasibism, the interpretation of parity of status between parties to marriage as being a Twelver Shiite and the narrations in this regard.  The advocates of absolute permissibility and karahah rely upon narrations that permit such a marriage, the absolute and general proofs mentioned in the marriage chapter and the practical conduct of Imams (peace be upon them). The conclusion of this research is absolute permissibility which, in addition to the arguments raised by those who believe in permissibility, is based on the biological, ideological and attitudinal developments of today’s women. The research method is analytical-critical and in addition to the Javaheri Ijtihad as the basis, regard shall be had to the jurisprudential approach that takes into consideration the effect of time and place.