What I understand here is Muttah is not unislamic practice. To say it is unislamic means sahabas performed unislamic practice.
As per Sunnis, it should be abolished with their arguments and as per Shia, it is still valid with their arguments.
As per Sunnis:
1- It was practiced at some time and then it was abolished by the prophet SAW which they quote a hadeeth and later as per Umer RAA where they quote his saying which mixed up with monkey meat prohibition.
2- It has many disadvantages of being abused these days and they consider it as fitnah to promote sexual in-discrimination.
As per Shia:
1- It is proscribed in Surah Nisa verse 24. (Sunni interpret it differently by saying it is about real marriage but not about Muttaul Nikah) Sunni also say the verse had one condition…not for fornication purpose but for chastity, for which sunni think Muttah is about fornication or sexual purpose hence not a good practice.
2- Shia say it has wisdom if practiced accordingly. It reduces the chance of fornication or indiscriminate sexual activities or desires.
3- For them the practice should be performed accordingly as proscribed or allowed.
4- They do not agree with Umer RAA decision. They say if it was not being practiced then why stop it? Their argument is that it was still being practiced during Siddique RAA time and he did not stop it.??
They also say, Ali RAA did not agree with Umer RAA. They do not believe of the prophet SAA prohibitory hadith which said I allowed you only for a short period, and don’t do it now. Was it Tabuk during which he allowed temporarily?
5- Somewhere their argument has different interpretation from Sunnis about abolition of Muttaul Hajj but not Muttaul Nikah, I do not remember.
Now
a-Muttah is not for married men who are living with their wives.
b-It is not for unmarried men or women who could otherwise be married.
c-It is not without responsibilities similar to regular marriage like dowry, responsibilities of offspring or perhaps laws of inheritance.
d-It is time limited as agreed upon.
So to my understanding, it could be for hours, days, months or years…?
But it can be converted in to regular timeless marriage if they decide to.
e-It does not require witnesses.
f- It also requires Iddat. Which separates it from prostitution as some of above reasons.
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Am I correct in my understanding???**