A THOUSAND AND ONE WIVES: INVESTIGATING THE INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF THE EXEGESIS OF VERSE Q 4:24 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Arabic and Islamic Studies By Roshan Iqbal, M.Phil. Washington, DC July 15, 2015 Copyright 2015 by Roshan Iqbal All Rights Reserved ii A THOUSAND AND ONE WIVES: INVESTIGATING THE INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF THE EXEGESIS OF VERSE Q 4:24 Roshan Iqbal, M.Phil. Thesis Adviser: Felicitas Opwis, Ph.D. ABSTRACT A Thousand and One Wives: Investigating the Intellectual History of the Exegesis of Verse 4:24 traces the intellectual legacy of the exegesis of Qur’an 4:24, which is used as the proof text for the permissibility of mut’a (temporary marriage). I ask if the use of verse 4.24 for the permissibility of mut’a marriage is justified within the rules and regulations of Qur’anic hermeneutics. I examine twenty Qur’an commentaries, the chronological span of which extends from the first extant commentary to the present day in three major Islamicate languages. I conclude that doctrinal self-identity, rather than strictly philological analyses, shaped the interpretation of this verse. As Western academia’s first comprehensive work concerning the intellectual history of mut’a marriage and sexual ethics, my work illustrates the power of sectarian influences in how scholars have interpreted verse 4:24. My dissertation is the only work in English that includes a plurality of voices from minor schools (Ibadi, Ashari, Zaidi, and Ismaili) largely neglected by Western scholars, alongside major schools, and draws from all available sub-genres of exegesis. Further, by revealing ambiguities in the interpretation of mut’a, my work challenges accepted sexual ethics in Islamic thought, as presented by most classical and many modern Muslim scholars—and thus opens up space to theorize Islamic sexual ethics anew. My thesis contributes to this crucial conversation from the perspective of Muslim feminism. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is impossible to acknowledge all those who have made contributions to my project. My project and my graduate studies, much like my life, are the labor of many lives without whose help this project would never find fruition. I am unable to name all the people who were instrumental in bringing this project to a close because the list would go on for pages, nevertheless, the following people, among many others, deserve special thanks. Before any one else, I would like to thank my adviser of seven years, Felicitas Opwis, who mentored me to maturation. In the same vein, I would like to thank Barbara Stowasser, who is no longer with us, but who was instrumental in helping me develop my critical eye. I would like to thank Meriem Tikue from our department for her steadfast friendship and good cheer. John Voll, who was not my official adviser, but was ever present with advice on work and life. I would also like to thank John Esposito for both encouragement and funding opportunities. Finally, I would like to thank the last member of my dissertation committee, Maria Dakake for her mentorship through this project. Of the people not formally connected to this project and to whom I am indebted are Dr. Ault and Janet. Their generosity to me, their sincere and steadfast support is beyond what language can capture. I would also like to thank, not in any particular order, Naila Bhabi, Hussain Bhai, Naveed Bhai, Sabra Apa, Thomosso de Fernex, Luna, and Emily Pollokoff for their constant support and encouragement. Last but not least, I would like to thank Zehra Baji and her father, Mohammad Habib, without the help of whom none of this would have been possible. iv DEDICATION From many, too many people worthy of dedication to choose from, I, in the end, dedicate this work to my mother and my sisters, and my husband without whom, it is no exaggeration to say, this work and the flowering of my (any and all) hopes would certainly not be possible. Also because it is them, and only them, who can understand what it means to have achieved this. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………….……………………….1 Research Previously Conducted…………….………………………….…..……..2 Methodology and Brief Overview of Chapters……………………………………9 Chapter Outline…………………………………………………………………..11 Chapter One: Mutʿa Marriage: Obsolete or Cutting Edge?...............................................16 Introduction………………………………………………………………………16 Definition of Mutʿa………………………………………………………………20 Differences Between Mutʿa Marriage and Permanent Marriage………………...23 Temporary Marriage Before Islam………………………………………………28 History of Mutʿa Marriage After Islam………………………………………….34 Current Practice of Mutʿa Marriage……………………………………………..49 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….60 Chapter Two: Tafsīr: Development of the Genre…………………………..……………64 Brief Overview of Mutʿa Marriage in the Qurʾan……………………………….64 Neighboring Verses……………………………………………………………...68 ʿAʾisha bint Abī Bakr (d. 58/678)………………………………………………..71 Ibn ʿAbbās (d. 68/687-88)………………………………………………………..79 Muqātil b. Sulaymān al-Balkhī (d. 150/767)…………………………………….88 Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭabarī (d. 310/923)………………………………………………..92 Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 322/934-5)……………………………………………….97 Abū al-Naḍr al-ʿAyyāshī (fl. late third/ninth century)………………………….101 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...104 Chapter Three: Tafsīr: The Genre Evolves and Reaches its Heights…………………..108 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..108 Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1035)……………………………..109 Jār Allāh al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144)………………………………………..114 Al-Faḍl b. al-Ḥasan al-Ṭabrisī (d. 548/1154)…………………………………...118 Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1209)……………………………………………..121 Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī (fl. sixth/twelfth century)……………………………..132 Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurṭubī (d. 671/1272)……………………………………...135 ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Kāshānī (d. 736/1336)……………………………………...138 Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqī Buruṣāwī (d. 1137/1725)………………………………………..139 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...141 Chapter Four: Tafsīr: The Modern Period……………………………………………...143 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..143 MuḥammadʿAbduh(d.1323/1905)and Muḥammad Rashīd Ridā(d.1354/1935)..137 Sayyid Abū al-Aʿlā Mawdūdī (d. 1399/1979)………………………………….151 Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Faḍl Allāh (d. 1330/2010)………………………..154 Farhat Hashmi (b. 1471/1957)………………………………………………….158 Āyatullāh Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāʾī (d. 1400/1981)…………….161 Nuṣrat Begum Amīn (d. 1403/1983)…………………………………………...166 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...169 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...170 Conclusion through Tafsīr……………………………………………………...171 vi Conclusion through Hadith……………………………………………………..175 Tafsīr and Identity……………………………………………………………...176 Future Direction………………………………………………………………...178 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………181 vii Introduction Mutʿa is an Arabic word from the root mīm, tāʾ, and ʿayn, and means “enjoyment.”1 Colloquially, mutʿa translates to “marriage of pleasure.”2 In legal parlance, mutʿa translates to fixed-term marriage, temporary marriage, or pleasure marriage. Mutʿa marriage is a marital contract where a man (married, divorced, widowed or single) and a woman (divorced, widowed, or virgin with the permission of her father) decide to marry for a specified period of time and exchange a specified amount of money.3 The woman does not receive nafaqa (material maintenance) and does not inherit from her temporary husband if he dies during the mutʿa marriage. At the end of the marital period there is no divorce ceremony; the marriage automatically dissolves itself. 4 If the woman conceives a child, the child gets the father’s name and has inheritance rights.5 Only Shiʿa allow mutʿa marriage—using Qurʾan verse 4:24 as a proof text for its permissibility—and the rest of the Muslim community forbids it. Of note is that Shiʿa sects like the Zaydī and Ismaʿili forbid mutʿa marriage. This is a major point of difference between imāmī Shiʿa jurisprudence and the legal practice of all other Muslim 1 Ed. J Milton Cowan, Hans Wehr: A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (Librairie du Liban, 1980), 890. 2 For example, mutʿa al-nikāḥ, or enjoyment of women, mutʿa al-nisā. 3 Al-Ṭūsī, when he mentions the conditions of mutʿa marriage, says, “The conditions for mutʿa marriage are that the time period and the compensation must be mentioned. This is what distinguishes it from permanent marriage.” See Ibn Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī, Taḥdhīb al-Aḥkām (Najaf: n.p., 1380/1960-1), 7:262. 4 See Umar bin Muhammad Daudpota and Asaf Ali Asghar Fyzee, “Notes on Mutʿa or Temporary Marriage in Islam,” Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 8 (1932): 79. See also Ignaz Goldziher, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 9, 207–208; Ayatollah Khomeini, A Clarification of Questions: An Unabridged Translation of Resaleh Towzih Al-Massael, trans. J. Borujerdi (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984); ʿAllama Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ṭabāṭabāī, Shi’ite Islam (London: Allen and Unwin, 1975); Āyatullāh Murtaḍā Muṭahharī, Niẓām- ḥuqūq-i-zan dar Islām (Legal Rights of Women in Islam); EI, “Mut’a”; and E.Q., “Marriage and Divorce”; and “Temporary Marriage.” 5 See any of the works mentioned in footnote 4. This is the one condition that distinguishes mutʿa from legalized prostitution. 1 sects. It is therefore surprising that mutʿa marriage has not been studied more comprehensively. This lack of scholarship gains more importance when we consider that mutʿa marriage