Fazal Ahmad Manawi, the former Minister of Justice under Afghanistan’s previous republican government, says that following the Taliban’s publication of the “Regulation on the Separation of Spouses,” the issue of marriage involving underage girls requires serious religious, jurisprudential, and social scrutiny.
Manawi said on Monday on the social media platform X that certain provisions concerning the marriage of underage girls in the regulation should be examined in light of the Quran, the Prophetic Sunnah, principles of Islamic jurisprudence, and the views of scholars from the various Islamic schools of thought.
He stressed that definitive rulings of Islamic law should be distinguished from the human interpretations and independent legal opinions of jurists, and that it should be made clear what Quranic, hadith-based, and jurisprudential evidence underpins each ruling.
He said the discussion surrounding the marriage of underage girls should not be settled solely on the basis of a few narrations and jurisprudential quotations. Rather, the authenticity and implications of the narrations, the historical context, the objectives of Islamic law, and human welfare should also be taken into consideration.
Manawi added that his comments are not intended to oppose religious rulings. Rather, he wants the issue to be examined through scholarly and historical research, with a clear distinction drawn between a “definitive divine ruling” and “human interpretations of Islamic law.”
Writer:Saeed Sameer
