Masala fi Sabiyayn Muslimayn Akhadhahuma Rais al-Kanisa Fanasha'a ala Dinihi wa Balagha alayhi wa Tazawwaja, thumma Aslama - dimn Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Masala fi Sabiyayn Muslimayn Akhadhahuma Rais al-Kanisa Fanasha'a ala Dinihi wa Balagha alayhi wa Tazawwaja, thumma Aslama (A Legal Issue Concerning Two Muslim Children Taken by a Church Leader, Raised in His Religion, Reaching Puberty upon It, Married, and Then Embracing Islam) is a legal treatise and fatwa by Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (1313–1386 AH / 1896–1966 CE) addressing the marital status and religious rulings of two Muslim-born individuals raised as Christians who married and later accepted Islam .
Context and Preservation
The text was discovered among unindexed manuscripts and drafts preserved in the library of the Holy Mosque in Mecca (Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki) . Al-Muallimi drafted the treatise twice: an initial incomplete rough draft with numerous strikethroughs, and a complete final version that provides an expanded discussion with textual references from legal works . It was published as the thirty-seventh treatise within the compendium of his collected writings, Athar al-Muallimi . Al-Muallimi noted at the conclusion of his response that he composed it under limitations and in the absence of reference books at hand .
The Case and Legal Structure
The question posed to al-Muallimi concerned a boy and a girl born to Somali Muslim parents who were taken and raised in Aden by the head of a church . They grew up adhering to Christianity and reached puberty within that faith, after which the church leader officiated a marriage contract between them according to Christian customs . They had children from this union, and subsequently the woman embraced Islam, followed by the man before the expiration of her waiting period (`idda) .
Al-Muallimi analyzed the legal implications of the case by dividing the lives of the two individuals into five chronological stages :
- Childhood prior to entering the church: They were ruled to be Muslims by consensus, following the religion of their Muslim parents from the time of conception .
- Adoption of Christianity during childhood: Their formal adherence to Christianity as minors was legally inconsequential, as the apostasy of a child or an insane person is invalid due to the absence of legal accountability (taklif); thus, their Islamic status remained intact .
- Reaching puberty while persisting in Christianity: Reaching adulthood while professing disbelief severed their original derivative Islamic status, classifying them legally as apostates (murtaddan) subject to the standard rulings of apostasy .
- The marriage contract: The marriage concluded between them during their state of apostasy was null and void (batil) under Islamic law, as an apostate woman is not lawful in marriage to a Muslim, an original non-Muslim, or another apostate, and an apostate holds no legal authority to marry . Al-Muallimi clarified that the invalidity stemmed from the impediment of apostasy rather than the contract being officiated by a church leader, noting that marriages conducted by church leaders between original adherents of their religion are recognized as valid in Islamic law .
- Their repentance and return to Islam: Because the original marriage was void, the two individuals had to be informed of its invalidity and guided toward executing a new, valid marriage contract .
Method and Legal Resolution
Al-Muallimi based his juridical analysis primarily on classical Shafi'i legal authorities, drawing citations from Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi's Minhaj al-Talibin, Zakariyya al-Ansari's Fath al-Wahhab, al-Khatib al-Shirbini's Mughni al-Muhtaj, and Muhammad al-Ramli's Nihayat al-Muhtaj .
In resolving the practical consequences of their reversion to Islam, he concluded that contracting a new marriage between them was preferable to separating them, particularly to preserve the welfare of their children and to reconcile their hearts (ta'lif) to Islam, especially while residing outside the Abode of Islam . He also ruled that the new contract was permissible immediately without requiring the completion of a waiting period, as the husband was the sole party to whom the `idda pertained .
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