Marriage Agreement Not to Have Children According to Islamic Law

Abstract

This study analyzes the marriage agreement not to have children made by prospective husbands and prospective wives before the marriage contract. Islam commands its people to carry out marriages between men and women to obtain good offspring. What if the future husband and wife agree not to have children before the marriage contract? This research is library research, and the data used is secondary data taken from several literatures. The collected data is analyzed by qualitative descriptive method. The finding of this study is that the scholars differed in opinion on this issue, Sheikh Ali Jum’ah, the grand Mufti in Egypt, allowed the marriage agreement not to have children because the Prophet Muhammad allowed the practice of ‘Azal to prevent pregnancy. The implication of this opinion will appear that prospective husbands and prospective wives marry only to fulfill biological needs, not to have children. Other scholars argue that the marriage agreement not to have children is prohibited (haram) because one of the primary purposes of marriage is to have children.