An Analytical Study on the Necessity of the Fiqhī-Legal Recognition of the Status of the Islamic Customary ʿAqd Period

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Student in Private Law, Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Fiqh and Fundamentals of Islamic Law, Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Law, Qom University, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

The formation of the family has individual and social consequences. In the fiqh and legal sources, there is no specific criterion for determining the commencement of conjugal life and family formation. The apparent evidence from fiqh proofs and legal texts indicates that from the moment the ʿulqat al-zawjiyyah (marital relationship) is contracted, all mutual rights and obligations of the spouses must be established; however, nowadays the “dawrān-ʿaqd” (the period of ʿaqd) has widely become recognized as a customary stage prior to the beginning of conjugal life, during which, despite the existence of the marital relationship, a family is not effectively formed. The challenge arising from this situation is the lack of a proper understanding of this period and the absence of appropriate regulations governing it. The examination of the necessity to identify the legal status of the customary dawrān-ʿaqd or ʿurfī marriage contract or non-registered customary marriage is an issue without precedent and has been addressed in the present research. In this regard, the study seeks to answer the question: what are the fiqh foundations for recognizing the dawrān-ʿaqd empirically? Since the non-recognition of the dawrān-ʿaqd in the current situation causes problems in the fulfillment of the mutual rights of the spouses (such as nafaqa or maintenance or financial support and tamkīn or sexual availability or marital submission) and their deprivation of certain social rights, and given that “namzadi” (engagement) lacks sharʿī legitimacy, it is concluded that the dawrān-ʿaqd can serve as an appropriate institution to resolve these difficulties. Furthermore, considering the practical problems, proposals such as the necessity of official registration of its duration, determination of enforcement guarantees, and the requirement to legislate specific laws have been put forward.

Keywords

References

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