Going in and finding Qaraza b. Ka‘b and Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari at a wedding where girls were singing I said, “Is this being done in the presence of you two who are companions of God’s Messenger and were present at Badr ?” They replied, “Sit down if you wish and listen along with us, or go away if you wish, for we have been given licence for amusement at a wedding.”
The temporary marriage applied only in the early days of Islam. A man would come to a settlement where he had no acquaintance and marry a woman for the period it was thought he would stay there, and she would look after his belongings and cook for him. But Ibn ‘Abbas said that when the verse came down, “Except their wives or the captives their right hands possess,” (Al-Qur’an 23:6) intercourse with anyone else became unlawful.
When we were on an expedition along with God’s Messenger and had no women with us we asked whether we should not have ourselves castrated, but he forbade us to do that. Then he granted us licence to contract temporary marriages, and one would marry a woman giving a garment as dower up to a fixed date. Then ‘Abdallah recited, “You who believe, do not make unlawful the good things which God has made lawful for you” (Al-Qur’an 5:87).
