Rhia...
Assalam O Alaikum.
I read your whole post, but it didn't include the simple answer I was looking for.
All you needed to do, was post excerpts from your own sources, ahadith literature which is accepted by shia scholars, with the chain of narrators used in Fiqh-e-Jaffaria, and prove that Hazrat Ali (Razi Allah Tallah) permitted mu'tah during his khilafat. After all, you keep on saying that Hazrat Umar (Razi Allah Tallah) had no power to abrogate something which Prophet (Sallalah o Alaihai Wassalam) didn't prohibit. So prove your point, using the words and actions of Hazrat Ali (Razi Allah Tallah), who became the fourth Ameer-ul-Momineen AFTER the second and the third khalifa. I am sure he knew more than you do.
Jazak Allah.<<<
“Ali asked the Prophet (PBUH), what is the reward of the person who participates in the virtuous deed of arranging the mutual meetings of a man and woman (for the intention of marriage)?" The Prophet (PBUH) said, "He will receive the same reward as the two who engage in mut’ah.”
No one can close the door of blessings which Allah opens for His servants, Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq said, “Mut' ah is one of the blessings of Allah."
It is narrated that once the Prophet (PBUH) was sitting among his companions and the discussion came to the topic of mut'ah. The Prophet (PBUH) said, "Do you know what is the reward of mut'ah?” The companions answered, "No," The Prophet (PBUH) then said, "Jibreel just came to me and said, '0 Muhammad, Allah sends His blessings to you and commands you to instruct your UMMAH to engage in the practice of mut'ah since this is the practice of [Allah's] virtuous servants.”
A few of the multitudes of Shia references (Tafseer Qummi, Minhaaj Sadiqeeen, Kafi, Man La Yahdhurul Faqih to name a few). Frankly, I would not be surprised if these are rejected outright by those who were so anxiously awaiting them. ;)
We have long established Mutah does not in any way equate to prostitution. Whoever holds the view it is prostitution has nothing to go on except their own personal view, which is wrong since it is not based on the Quran and Sunnah. Since Mutah was practised during the Prophet’s time we know there is no question of it being “wrong”. So now the question we beg to ask is of the subsequent prohibition and allowance of Mutah and whether in fact if it was prohibited at all.
The argument is rather simple my dear brothers when you think of it this way: Shias deny that Mutah was ever prohibited by the Prophet therefore naturally all of their sources contain references to confirm this. So to try and DISPROVE Mutah from Hadith collections of Shia scholars is really a moot point. However, nobody will stop you should you wish to try, defy as it may all common sense. Some of you may still insist on Hazrat Ali’s point of view vis-à-vis Hazrat Umar’s prohibition/“reminder” both of which are somewhat relegated when a clear cut ruling of the Prophet (pbuh) is present. So to say Hazrat Ali said this and Hazrat Umar said that (especially when you insist on Shia Hadith), when the Prophet in fact never prohibited Mutah, is totally irrelevant. There is no contradiction regarding allowance of Mutah when it comes to Shia literature.
HOWEVER, since Sunni hadith literature is replete with contradictions, so much so that you could take one Hadith and “Abrogate” it with another, and like our brother Iqbal here, one could eventually start to question the authenticity of the maybe-not-so-authentic literature after all, if only by beginning with the chain of narrators, therefore it is imperative to prove or disprove the validity of Mutah from Sunni sources. So please bear with us. All the references are from Sunni sources (Sahih Muslim, Musnad Abu Dawood and the Sunans) provided earlier in the posts by Brothers Gandalf and Hasnain. I summarise below:
Hadith No. 1 states: Mutah was practised and sanctioned by the Prophet.
Hadith 2: Mutah was practised in times of War only, again sanctioned by the Prophet.
Hadith 3: Mutah was banned by the Prophet till Judgement Day on the day of Khyber.
Hadith 4: Mutah was allowed during the conquest of Mecca (which occurred after Khyber) but then forbidden forever.
Hadith 5: Mutah was practised during the lifetime of the Prophet AND during the caliphate of Hazrat Abu Bakr.
Hadith 6: Mutah was prohibited by Hazrat Umar (implying it was prohibited by neither the Prophet nor Hazrat Abu Bakr)
Hadith 7: Hazrat Umar reminded people of the prohibition of Mutah. Actually this is not a Hadith but an interpretation of Hazrat Umar may have meant when he said “I prohibit two Mutahs which were allowed by the Prophet…”
Faced with all these contradictory Sahih Ahadith, one may be forgiven for becoming a little confused. Nevertheless, we will give all these Hadith the benefit of doubt however weak the narrations or the obvious contradictions in some (I won’t mention selectivity). However with reference to Hazrat Umar supposedly reminding people about the prohibition of Mutah, one may question as to why he clearly referenced the prohibition to himself rather than to the Prophet? Why did he NOT say “I remind you of the Prophet’s prohibition of Mutah” or “I prohibit that which the Prophet had prohibited”? Instead he states “I prohibit that which the Prophet allowed”. Someone needs to answer these questions.
I am not surprised of the variations in thought in our Sunni brothers and sisters. Some answer with “the Prophet neither allowed nor disallowed it, an argument which has already been refuted. Whilst some who live in a cocoon will undermine their own credibility by promoting here’ say and rumours whilst not knowing the first thing about Jafri beliefs. And whilst still some others start to question the authenticity of the narrators of this literature – which is nonetheless encouraging in showing some use of reasoning and logic – it would lead to further interesting discussions. A case in point with reference to Al Hakam: the collectors of Ahadith came a century or two after the Prophet’s time so it is more than necessary to utilise intellect to judge every Hadith on its individual merits in order to determine its authenticity.
Someone mentioned slavery as an example of something practised during the Prophets time but not practised nowadays. Well my reply is that slavery was never ever banned by the Prophet nor anyone else; its practise died out with changing cultural customs.
Lastly, why have there been Sunni scholars, over the centuries, who do not believe Mutah was ever prohibited and were in favour of it? The Abbasid Caliph Mamun, son of Haroon Rashid allowed Mutah. Most notably, in recent times the renowned scholar Maulana Maududi thought it permissible. Why?