By: Raya Shokatfard
Marriage is an exclusive right given to human beings. Yet, mating would include all species—including even the plant kingdom.
Why did God favor humans with such high honor?
To begin with, we may narrow down the species with souls and without. Muslims believe that humans and those of animal Kingdom have souls in whose nature God has imprinted desire to mate and multiply. The creation without soul also multiply, but not in the same manner.
What sets humans apart from animals is that they are given intellect, wisdom and ability to choose and discern right from wrong.
The mating among the animals is in most cases, according to the time the animal goes into heat and thus calls for a mating with the opposite kind. For example a female cat can mate with several male cats while in heat. Some animal pairs stay with each other for life, but not the case with majority.
In the modern age one wonders if some humans have used the animals as their role models for mating. When the desire arises, one looks for someone to mate with. In a more advance level, there are some love and affection. Children are even born as a result of this kind of mating with or without love involved with the parents.
Traditional Family vs. Single Parents
Yet, in Islam, the highest honor is given to those who honor their Creator; who plan their lives and direct their desires toward the permissible channels in order to gain both worldly pleasure as well as fulfilling their roles as obedient servants of God.
With no guilt on the conscience, a couple is able to fully give love and devotion to each other, raise healthy children who are fully secure in having both loving father and mother on their sides while they are growing up. What a blessing!
One should take note about the huge percentage of children in the West born out of wedlock, living with only one parent, and in some cases never get to see the other parent for years or for life. Until recent years when DNA testing identified the real father, many men refused any responsibility as a father, blaming the mother for having slept with too many men.
The insecurity a woman feels when she is unmarried and keeps changing mate and wonders which one will stay with her and for how long, is a miserable life no one desires, but it seems to have become the norm in the West.
Other Advantages
In Islam, one knows by getting married, he is not only getting a partner for life, he is getting his whole world put on the right balance. From now until the rest of his days his spouse will be his best friend, companion and one with whom the sharing of rearing righteous children would be a joy and a great actualization of all the dreams one had prior to marriage.
Unlike the modern male/female relationships, the commitment in marriage gives one the sense that they have now someone to share their joys, sorrows, successes and failures. One is not discarded like a used book in the trash once an undesirable situation or a serious sickness strikes him. Differences are dealt within an understanding and kind manners.
Who would be a better person to keep your top secrets, give you sincere advice and be understanding when you are having a hard time, losing your job or having a bad day than a faithful spouse?
God gives the best description regarding the closeness of the spouses to each other in the Quranic verse: {…they are your garments and you are their garments…} (Al Baqarah 2: 187)
Indeed, spouses are like garments to each other because they provide one another with the protection, the comfort, the cover, the support, and the adornment that garments provide to humans.
God, with His vast wisdom, unites species of the same kind as mates for each other. His mercy does not only include the humans, but all species. As for the humans, he makes this favor clear:
{And Allah has made for you Mates (and Companions) of your own nature …} (An Nahl 16: 72)
God has pointed his human creatures to so many signs and wonders that one would be unable to count them all, yet, most are neglectful of such vast evidences of the majesty of the Creator. But the undeniable favor God has given to human being is the love He has put in spouses’ hearts for one another:
{And among His signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves that you may dwell in tranquility with them and He has put love and mercy between your hearts: verily in that are signs for those who reflect.} (Ar-Rum 30: 21)
With all the open doors and lawful ways of obtaining not only God’s pleasure, but one’s own as well, one wonders why choose the crooked way?
Lastly, in Islam, marriage is considered the other half of religion. This means no matter how religious a person is, unless he is married, the religion is incomplete. Why?
It is not only God that has right upon His servants, but the person’s body and emotions also have rights that need to be rightfully fulfilled.
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Published on Reading Islam on Sunday, 18 December 2011