Question:
What is the ruling on marrying women of the People of the Book?
Answer:
Marriage with chaste women from the People of the Book is permissible. This is indicated by the Quran, Hadith, and the consensus of the Ummah. Here, the People of the Book specifically refer to Jews and Christians only.
❀ Allah Almighty says:
وَٱلْمُحْصَنَٰتُ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا ٱلْكِتَٰبَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ إِذَآ أَتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ مُحْصِنِينَ غَيْرَ مُسَافِحِينَ وَلَا مُتَّخِذِىٓ أَخْدَانٍ
The chaste women of the People of the Book (have been made lawful for you), provided that you give them their dowry, your intention is to attain chastity, and there is no intention of open adultery or secret intimacy.
To say that here the women of the People of the Book mean those women who have left Judaism and Christianity and become Muslims is baseless, because before this verse, believing women were already mentioned, so what is the meaning of mentioning the women of the People of the Book separately here?
Also, from the time of the Prophet, it has been the continuous and established practice of Muslims to marry chaste women from the People of the Book in every era.
❀ Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) says:
لما نزلت هذه الآية: ولا تنكحوا ٱلمشركٰت حتىٰ يؤمن، قال: فحجز الناس عنهن، حتى نزلت التى بعدها: وٱلمحصنٰت من ٱلذين أوتوا ٱلكتٰب من قبلكم، فنكح الناس من نساء أهل الكتاب
When this verse was revealed: Do not marry polytheist women until they believe, people stopped marrying women from the People of the Book, until this verse was revealed: Marriage with chaste women from the People of the Book before you is permissible, then people began marrying women from the People of the Book.
❀ Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked about marriage with a Jewish or Christian woman, he said:
تزوجوهن زمان الفتح بالكوفة مع سعد بن أبى وقاص، ونحن لا نكاد نجد المسلمات كثيرا، فلما رجعنا طلقناهن، قال: ونساؤهم لنا حل، ونساؤنا عليهم حرام
The Companions, in the presence of Saad bin Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him), used to marry women from the People of the Book during the period of conquests in Kufa. At that time, there were not many Muslim women. When we returned from Kufa, we divorced the women from the People of the Book. The women of the People of the Book are lawful for us, while our women are forbidden for them.
❀ Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) states:
تزوج طلحة رضى الله عنه يهودية
Sayyiduna Talha (may Allah be pleased with him) married a Jewish woman.
❀ Abdullah bin Abdur-Rahman Ansari Ashhali (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
إن حذيفة بن اليمان نكح يهودية
Sayyiduna Hudhayfah bin Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him) married a Jewish woman.
❀ Abu Wa’il Shaqiq bin Salmah (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates:
تزوج حذيفة يهودية، فكتب إليه عمر: خل سبيلها، فكتب إليه: أتزعم أنها حرام، فأخلي سبيلها؟ فقال: لا أزعم أنها حرام، ولكن أخاف أن تعاطوا المومسات منهن
Sayyiduna Hudhayfah bin Yaman (may Allah be pleased with him) married a Jewish woman, so Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to him to separate from her. Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) replied: Do you consider her forbidden, so I should separate? Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) replied: I do not consider her forbidden, but I fear that you might marry corrupt Jewish women.
Hafiz Ibn Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him) has declared its chain authentic.
❀ Imam Bayhaqi (may Allah have mercy on him)
says:
هذا من عمر رضى الله عنه على طريق التنزيه والكراهة
Sayyiduna Umar’s (may Allah be pleased with him) action was due to disapproval and dislike.
All doubts are removed by these narrations from the Companions; the Companions married Jewish and Christian women.
❀ Hafiz Ibn Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him)
says:
قد تزوج جماعة من الصحابة من نساء النصارى ولم يروا بذلك بأسا، أخذا بهذه الآية الكريمة: وٱلمحصنٰت من ٱلذين أوتوا ٱلكتٰب من قبلكم، فجعلوا هذه مخصصة للآية التى فى البقرة: ولا تنكحوا ٱلمشركٰت حتىٰ يؤمن، إن قيل بدخول الكتابيات فى عمومها، وإلا فلا معارضة بينها وبينها؛ لأن أهل الكتاب قد يفصل فى ذكرهم عن المشركين فى غير موضع، كما قال تعالىٰ: لم يكن ٱلذين كفروا من أهل ٱلكتٰب وٱلمشركين منفكين حتىٰ تأتيهم ٱلبينة، وكقوله: وقل للذين أوتوا ٱلكتٰب وٱلأميين أسلمتم فإن أسلموا فقد ٱهتدوا
A group of the Companions married Christian women and did not consider it objectionable. If the women of the People of the Book are included in the generality of the verse in Surah Al-Baqarah: Do not marry polytheist women until they believe, then the Companions considered them an exception to this verse: You may marry chaste women from those who were given the Scripture before you. If the women of the People of the Book are not included in the generality of the Surah Al-Baqarah verse, then there is no contradiction between the two verses, because in many other verses, the People of the Book are distinguished from the general polytheists, as Allah Almighty says: Those who disbelieve among the People of the Book and the polytheists were not going to desist from disbelief until clear evidence came to them. Also, the command of Allah Almighty is: Say to the People of the Book and the unlettered: Do you submit yourselves? If they submit, they will be rightly guided.
❀ Hafiz Ibn Milqan (may Allah have mercy on him)
says:
إن الإجماع وقع على إباحة نكاح الكتابيات لقوله تعالىٰ: وٱلمحصنٰت من ٱلذين أوتوا ٱلكتٰب، ولا جائز أن يقول: أراد بالمحصنات هنا اللواتي أسلمن من أهل الكتاب لأنهن مؤمنات، وقد تقدم ذكر المؤمنات قبله، فلا معنىٰ لذكره ذلك بعد، فوجب استعمال النص فى نساء أهل الكتاب مع ما استمر عليه عمل الصحابة فى زمنه إلىٰ يومنا هذا
There is consensus that marriage with women of the People of the Book is permissible because Allah Almighty says: The chaste women of the People of the Book (have been made lawful for you). It is not permissible to say that here the chaste women mean those women of the People of the Book who have accepted Islam, because those who have accepted Islam are believing women, and believing women were mentioned earlier in the verse, so there is no meaning in mentioning them again here. Therefore, the text should be understood as referring to the women of the People of the Book. Also, the Companions acted upon this during the Prophetic era, and this practice continues until our time.
Remember that the People of the Book are those who believe in a revealed scripture. In our time, many Jews and Christians have become secular and do not believe in the existence of the Creator of the universe. Such a belief cannot be held by a Jew or Christian, so marriage with such a person is not permissible.
