Nikah mut‘ah

Nikāḥ al-mutʿah (Arabic: نكاح المتعة‎, literally "temporary marriage"), is a type of marriage permitted in Twelver Shia Islam, where the duration of the marriage and the dowry must be specified and agreed upon in advance. It is a private contract made in a verbal or written format. A declaration of the intent to marry and an acceptance of the terms are required (as they are in nikah). Nikah mut'ah was also practiced by the pre-Islamic Arabs.

According to Twelver Shia jurisprudence, preconditions for Nikah mut'ah are: The bride must not be married, she must be Muslim or belong to Ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book), she should be chaste, not addicted to fornication and she should not be a young virgin (especially if her father is absent and cannot give consent). At the end of the contract, the marriage ends and the wife must undergo iddah, a period of abstinence from marriage (and thus, sexual intercourse). The iddah is intended to give certain paternity to a child should the wife become pregnant during the contract. Generally, the Nikah mut'ah has no proscribed minimum or maximum duration. However, one source, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, indicates the minimum duration of the marriage is debatable and durations of at least three days, three months or one year have been suggested.Sunni Muslims, Zaidi Shias and Ismaili Shias do not practice Nikah mut'ah; however, Islamic studies scholar Achim Rohde states that Sunni Muslims practice Nikah misyar, a similar marriage arrangement. Some Western scholars consider both Nikah mut'ah and Nikah misyar to be forms of religiously sanctioned prostitution.