Marriage: Devotion for Allah or satisfying the desire and begetting children

Imam Ash-Shatiby said: Driving actions away from the objectives of the Law-Giver entails that they are impermissible and what is impermissible is invalid.

Although marriage is permissible, the intention of marriage needs a pause. If the intention of the one who approaches marriage is just to fulfill desire and lust without paying attention to the objectives of the Law-Giver, marriage is still considered permissible even if the desire is consistent with a permissible worldly matter.

However, such marriage misses the objective of the Law-Giver, so the doer shall not gain a reward from Allah in the Hereafter because actions are judged according to the intention.

Moreover, the actions, which are consistent with one's desire and lust, remain effective as long as the life of its doer, but when the doer passes away, the effect of actions ends.

Therefore, Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "Whosoever desires (by his deeds) the reward of the Hereafter, We give him increase in his reward, and whosoever desires the reward of this world (by his deeds), We give him thereof (what is decreed for him), and he has no portion in the Hereafter." [Surat Ash-Shura].

When scholars were asked whether marriage is an act of the Hereafter or a worldly matter, they answered as follows: "If a person intends to do a pious act such as following the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) or begetting children, protecting himself, and so on; it is an act of the Hereafter for which a person is rewarded. However, if a person intends to fulfill the desire, it is a worldly act which has neither reward nor punishment." [Fatawa Imam An-Nawawy p. 179 excerpted from the Fatwas of Question Q&A Website- question No. 8891].

Imam Al Ghazaly said: "When a person marries and intends to beget children, it will be a pious act for which he gains reward because of the following:

1- Achieving the objective of Allah in begetting children to preserve the human race.

2- Complying with the Prophet's command to marry and beget children so that the Prophet and Messengers will be proud of you on the Day of Recompense.

3- Asking for more blessings, reward, forgiving of sins by the invocations of children to their parents." [Question No. 12493 - Fatwas of Islam Q&A Website].

The objective here is to use the worldly life to gain the reward of the Hereafter and not following self-desires to gain personal benefits or ward off evils.

In other words, marriage has a main objective which is worshipping Allah and a subsequent objective which is satisfying the desire, begetting children, and live in harmony with one's wife. All these objectives are not meant for their own but the doer gains the reward for that.

Allah (Glory be to Him) praised the believers when He said: "And those who say: "Our Lord! Bestow on us from our wives and our offspring the comfort of our eyes, and make us leaders of the Muttaqûn (the pious)."" [Surat Al Furqan: 74] because it contains a great reward in the Hearafter.

Imam Al Ghazaly said: "Anything that helps the body to survive and empty the heart for worship is supportive to the religion.

So, whoever intends to protect his religion, please his family, and beget a child to worship Allah and support the nation of Islam is obedient to Allah by such marriage. However, if the intention does not serve the main objective, the objective of marriage shall not be correct.

When a person says: I intend to marry for the sake of Allah, it will be said to him: This is not a proper intention, but it is a self-talk or a thought.

The purpose in its reality is: Directing oneself to the thing which brings benefits and wards off evil sooner or later.

When a person has the desire to marry but he does not have the intention to beget children, he cannot have intimate relationship with his wife with the intention of having children, but with the intention of satisfying the desire only.

Intention is the response of the motive, so if he has no motive except the desire, he is not following the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) in marriage.

In order to gain this intention, you should strengthen the faith first then pushes away the thinking of anything that may hinder a person from fulfilling that intention such as thinking about the burdens of marriage, expenditure, and so on.

When a person neglects thinking about these matters, he shall be ready to have the proper intention which is obeying Allah and His Messenger by thinking in marriage to follow the Sunnah.

Therefore, a group of the Pious Predecessors abstained from a set of pious actions because they did not have the intention to do them.

Ibn Sirin did not attend the funeral of Al Hasan Al Basry and when he was asked about that, he replied: I did not have intention. When Hammad ibn Sulayman, one of the scholars of Kufa, died, Imam Ath-Thawry did not attend his funeral, and when he was asked about that, he replied: If I had intention, I would have attended. Whoever cares for the religion shall have everything easy for him and intention will be present in all his actions, and to gain that he should remember Hell-Fire and warn himself of its punishment or remembers Paradise and exhorts himself to it.

In Short:

Every action needs an intention because there is no reward for action without intention, and there is no reward except for the one who dedicates his actions to Allah.

Any action is not made for the sake of Allah has no fruit in this world or in the Hereafter.

Actions should have two things as Ibn Al Qayyim said: To be sincere for the sake of Allah and to be correct, therefore the best of actions is the most sincere and dedicated for the sake of Allah.

If the action is sincere but not correct, it shall not be accepted and if it is correct but not sincere for Allah, it will not be accepted.

We have spoken about devoting marriage for the sake of Allah but did not speak about the correctness of marriage.

The correctness of marriage means whether the way in which we conclude our marriage is in harmony with the Sunnah or not, because nowadays the way in which we conclude our marriage is not in harmony with the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) except for few examples.

Therefore, the matter does not need researches and studies to understand the causes of breaking down families, the raise of divorce cases, and the deviation of children.

Marriage is like a building and its bases are the piety of Allah, so if this is the basis, the building shall be coherent and firm.

However, if the building is based on other purposes, it will be easy to collapse. Allah (Glory be to Him) says: "Is it then he who laid the foundation of his building on piety to Allâh and His Good Pleasure better, or he who laid the foundation of his building on the brink of an undetermined precipice ready to crumble down, so that it crumbled to pieces with him into the Fire of Hell. And Allâh guides not the people who are the Zâlimûn (cruel, violent, proud, polytheist and wrong-doer)."