02/20/2022
THE PURPOSE OF MARRIAGE IN ISLAM
Allah has allowed marriage for the believers for three basic reasons. They are:
1. To enable a man and a woman to live together and experience love and happiness, within Islamic law.
2. To produce children, and provide a stable and righteous environment for their upbringing.
3. To provide a legal union which safeguards society from moral and social degradation.
The first two reasons are self-explanatory; both take into account the natural urges of human beings. The third point looks beyond the individual, and establishes marriage as the most important tool for creating an ideal society. How does marriage accomplish this?
First, you must understand that one of the most important moral values in Islam is chastity, i.e., the purity of both the individual and the whole society. Islam regards marriage as the means by which man’s natural urges and needs, both physical and emotional, are controlled and satisfied at the same time. Uncontrolled and uninhibited satisfaction of physical desire is simply not permitted in Islam. Adultery and fornication are grave sins. A Muslim man cannot go to any woman and merely satisfy his physical desires; he has to do so through a legal contract of marriage, which carries with it the additional responsibilities, duties and liabilities of family and children for the rest of his life.
The result of this restriction is the creation of a society whose morals are protected. In fact, the Holy Qur’an mentions the marriage contract (nikah) by the word ihsan, which means a fortress. The man who contracts marriage is a muhsin, that is he builds a fortress. The woman who marries him is a muhsinah, which means that she has come into the protection of that fort, in order to protect herself and their morals.
Source: https://www.alislam.org/book/pathway-to-paradise/islamic-marriage-system/
