Misyar Marriage

A misyar marriage (Arabic: نكاح المسيار‎, romanized: nikah al-misyar or more often زواج المسيار zawaj al-misyar "traveller's marriage") is a type of marriage contract in Sunni Islam. The husband and wife thus joined are able to renounce some marital rights such as living together, the wife's rights to housing and maintenance money (nafaqa), and the husband's right to home-keeping and access. The practice is often used in some Islamic countries to give a legal recognition to behavior that might otherwise be considered adulterous via temporary, contractual marriages.

In Practice
The Sheikh of al-Azhar mosque, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi and Sufi scholar and theologian Yusuf Al-Qaradawi note in their writings and in their lectures that a major proportion of the few men who take a spouse in the framework of the misyar marriage are men who are married or women who are either are divorced, widowed or beyond the customary marriage age. Arab News reported in 2014 that the “misyar marriages became a widespread reality” in the Saudi kingdom.

Legality
Misyar marriage fits within the general rules of marriage in law, on condition merely that it fulfill all the requirements of the Shariah marriage contract, i.e.:


 * The agreement of both parties
 * Two legal witnesses (shahidain)
 * The absence of a fixed time period for the contract
 * The payment by the husband to his wife of mahr (dower) in the amount that is agreed
 * Any particular stipulations (shuroot) which the two parties agree to include in the contract and which are in conformity with Muslim marriage law

However, some Sunni scholars and organizations have opposed the concept of Nikah Misyar altogether.

Observation
In the view of the Saudi Islamic lawyer and member of the Higher Council of Ulema of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Sulaiman bin Menie, the wife can, at any time as she sees fit, retract her renunciation of her financial rights and require of her husband that he give her all of her marital rights, including that he live with her and provide for her financial needs (nafaqa). The husband can then either do so, or grant her a divorce.

For these reasons, Professor Yusuf Al-Qaradawi observes that he does not promote this type of marriage, although he has to recognise that it is legal, since it fulfills all the requirements of the usual marriage contract. He states his preference that the clause of renunciation be not included within the marriage contract, but be the subject of a simple verbal agreement between the parties. He underlines the fact that Muslims are held by their commitments, whether they are written or verbal.