Mut'a / Temporary Marriage (Ibn Majah's Wording)

Argument 20 of 20 · Sunan Ibn Mājah

The text

Ibn Majah 2566 — Records the canonical mut'a-prohibition framework with Ibn Majah's chain attestation. The hadith parallels Muslim 1422 (entry m01) and the broader Sunan corpus on mut'a.

Context

Ibn Majah 2566 reinforces the mut'a framework with cross-collection attestation. The substantive issues are addressed in entry m01 (Muslim 1422) and entry n08 (Nasa'i). The Ibn Majah contribution: cross-collection consistency of the inconsistent timeline and unresolved Sunni-Shia divergence.

The analysis from entries m01 and n08 applies fully here.

The cumulative cross-collection picture:

1. Muslim 1422 (m01): Mut'a permitted at Khaybar, prohibited later. 2. Nasa'i 3392 / 3378 (n08): Same teaching, with permission/prohibition tension preserved internally. 3. Ibn Majah 2566 (this entry): Same teaching, with cross-collection attestation. 4. Sunni jurisprudence prohibits mut'a; Shia jurisprudence permits. 5. The strongest hadith (Muslim 1217) attributes the prohibition to Caliph Umar.

The text is what we would expect of a contested human jurisprudential tradition with timeline uncertainty and political-authority attribution, and not what we would expect of a unified divine teaching on a fundamental sexual-ethical question.

Premises

P1. Ibn Majah 2566 preserves the mut'a framework with cross-collection attestation.
P2. The hadith is established across multiple canonical collections.
P3. The timeline of permission and prohibition remains inconsistent across narrations.
P4. Sunni and Shia Islam reach opposite conclusions on mut'a's current permissibility.
P5. The strongest hadith (Muslim 1217) attributes the prohibition to Caliph Umar, raising Caliphal-vs-prophetic authority questions.
P6. Modern Twelver Shia communities practice mut'a institutionally; Sunni communities forbid it.
P7. A clear divine teaching would not produce contradictory hadith timelines and opposite sectarian conclusions on a sexual-ethical question. (See entry m01.)

Conclusion

Ibn Majah 2566 completes the cross-collection record on mut'a, reinforcing the textual instability around the practice. The Sunni-Shia split is structural; the timeline is inconsistent; the attribution of prohibition to Umar undermines the prophetic-source claim. (See entries m01, n08 for substantive analysis.)

Common Muslim responses · with counter-responses

Common Muslim response · 1

Mut'a was prohibited by Muhammad himself.

Counter-response

Internal inconsistency on timeline. (See m01.)

Common Muslim response · 2

Q 4:24 refers to ordinary marriage.

Counter-response

Verse is interpretively ambiguous; Shia read mut'a. (See m01.)

Common Muslim response · 3

Umar confirmed Muhammad's teaching.

Counter-response

First-person prohibition language. (See m01.)

Common Muslim response · 4

Modern Shia mut'a is degraded.

Counter-response

Structural form is the original. (See m01.)

Common Muslim response · 5

Sunni-Shia agree on most things.

Counter-response

Disagreement on sexual ethics is not minor. (See m01.)