Should Unemployment Be A Hurdle In Marriages As Denizens Of Islam?

“They (women) are garments for you (men) and you are garments for them”

– Al Quran 2:187

Marriage is simply called “wedding,” although the most probable term in terms of Islam is “nikah.” It is the amalgamation of two persons. Islam sees it as a social contract with a variety of obligations rather than a union that exists only to gratify sexual wants. According to the Divine Faith, a woman is a spiritual and moral being who is given to a man on the basis of a holy promise, to which Allah is a witness. She is not merely a plaything in his hands. In order to give the family’s existence, and ultimately the life of humanity, a meaningful purpose, the wife is not meant to provide sensual pleasure to the man alone. Instead, she is meant to collaborate closely with him.

Mahr (a marriage should be governed by a contract, and the bride must get a set amount of money that will allow her to support herself in the event that her husband passes away or gets divorced. Chastity is another requirement for marriage.

According to Islam, the person should be courteous, kind, loyal, and practise Islam by offering five times daily prayers, but what we observe is that the person should be employed, which leads to a number of societal issues such as late marriage, divorce, and love marriages, but employment isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Quran as a requirement for marriage. Nevertheless, it is a very unfortunate and depressing fact that priority is given to those who are employed in our society.

Another requisite of marriage is chastity, but employment isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Quran for marriage, and it is a very unfortunate and saddening thing that priority is given to employed persons in our society. Since a few decades ago, it has become popular in Kashmir to prefer employees of any department for marriage over those who work in other professions like labour or commerce, which is completely discriminatory. The preference for marriage is given to the employee, who may not be deserving of that relationship if there is a casual worker on one side making little money and a person working on the other side earning a considerable amount of money. What we fear is perhaps sustenance, but the noble Prophet S.A.W. (Peace Be Upon Him) said sustenance is the thing that is written by an angel by virtue of the Almighty before breathing the soul into the body (SAHIH AL-BUKHARI 4430).

The survey was done by Barkatullah University, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. The study made use of a survey method that revealed 98.33 percent of the male respondents faced a hurdle with marriage due to unemployment. 

We must have unwavering faith in the Almighty Allah. According to Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. said that if you trusted Allah with all your heart, he would provide for you just as he does for the birds, who leave in the morning on an empty stomach and come back full. Employment is not a prerequisite for marriage; rather, it is a social issue that has arisen in our society. Ultimately, it all stems from greed because we want a stable life free from sadness, but that is not the case.

Men who are unemployed are more likely to get divorced than people who are employed, according to a 2011 study by Ohio State University. As a state with a majority of Muslims, these things should not be permitted because we should be ardent adherents of Islam and Almighty Allah. However, since this is not the case, we are consistently making the wrong decisions in all spheres of life. 

Unemployment is neither a disease nor a sin, and justice should prevail with unemployed people, and they should also be given their own rights. We have become far too greedy; everyone from this generation has left this earth with nothing. May the Almighty Allah illuminate for us the way that we have completely forgotten.

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Peer Mohammad Amir Qureshi

The author is a columnist and poet and is pursuing M.Sc. in Zoology.