What Does the Quran Say About Marriage — Compared with Judaism and Christianity

The Hebrew Bible treats marriage as a covenantal institution, and the Torah legislates it extensively. One of the most striking regulations concerns intermarriage with foreign nations: Deuteronomy 7:3 explicitly prohibits giving a daughter to a foreign son or taking a foreign daughter for one's own son Deuteronomy 7:3. Rabbinic authorities like Maimonides (d. 1204 CE) interpreted this as a safeguard against religious assimilation rather than ethnic superiority per se, though the distinction has been debated vigorously in modern scholarship.

The Torah's prohibition on adultery — stated tersely in Deuteronomy 5:18 — anchors the sanctity of the marital bond in the Decalogue itself Deuteronomy 5:18. The Talmud (tractate Kiddushin) elaborates a full legal ceremony of betrothal and marriage, requiring witnesses, a ketubah (marriage contract), and the husband's declaration. Jeremiah 16:2, where God commands the prophet not to take a wife in a particular place and time, shows that marriage could even be suspended by divine command under exceptional prophetic circumstances Jeremiah 16:2, a detail that highlights how contextual Jewish marriage law can be.

It's worth noting that the Hebrew Bible permitted polygyny — the patriarchs practiced it — though by the medieval period the rabbinic decree of Rabbenu Gershom (c. 1000 CE) effectively banned it for Ashkenazi Jews. Sephardic communities retained the practice longer. Marriage in Judaism is ultimately about building a household (bayit ne'eman) and fulfilling the commandment of procreation, two goals the Torah consistently foregrounds.

Christianity inherits the Hebrew Bible's covenantal view of marriage and elevates it further in the New Testament. The epistle to the Hebrews offers one of the most concise Christian statements on the subject: marriage is honorable in all, and the marriage bed is undefiled, but God will judge fornicators and adulterers Hebrews 13:4. This verse, cited by theologians from John Chrysostom (d. 407 CE) to John Calvin (d. 1564 CE), simultaneously affirms the goodness of marital sexuality and warns against its violation.

The New Testament, especially in Paul's letters and the Gospels, generally restricts marriage to one man and one woman for life, with divorce permitted only under narrow conditions. This monogamy-as-norm distinguishes mainstream Christianity from both classical Judaism and Quranic Islam on the question of polygyny. The Catholic tradition, formalized at the Council of Trent (1563 CE), treats marriage as a sacrament — a position Protestants rejected, though they retained marriage's sacred character.

Jeremiah 16:2, where God instructs the prophet to remain unmarried as a sign of coming judgment Jeremiah 16:2, has occasionally been used by Christian ascetics to argue that celibacy can be a higher calling — a reading that has no real parallel in mainstream Jewish or Islamic thought. Still, the dominant Christian consensus, echoed in Hebrews 13:4, is that marriage is not merely permitted but honored by God Hebrews 13:4.

The Quran presents marriage as a foundational act of divine creation. Surah 4:1 reminds believers that God created humanity from a single soul and from it created its mate, spreading men and women across the earth — a cosmic origin story that gives marriage a theological weight from the very first verse of that chapter Quran 4:1. Similarly, Surah 7:189 describes how God created a spouse so that the husband might find tranquility with her, framing marital companionship as a divine mercy rather than a mere social contract Quran 7:189.

Islamic law derived from the Quran is notably specific about prohibited marriages. Surah 4:23 lists mothers, daughters, sisters, paternal and maternal aunts, nieces, foster mothers, foster sisters, mothers-in-law, stepdaughters, daughters-in-law, and the simultaneous marriage of two sisters as all forbidden Quran 4:23. Classical jurists such as al-Shafi'i (d. 820 CE) and Ibn Qudama (d. 1223 CE) built entire chapters of fiqh on this single verse, debating edge cases like milk-kinship and sequential marriages to sisters.

The Quran also permits a man to marry up to four wives, provided he can treat them equitably — a condition many modern scholars like Khaled Abou El Fadl argue effectively restricts polygyny in practice. The mahr (dower) given to the bride is obligatory, making the wife an active legal party rather than a passive recipient. Surah 39:6 reaffirms the paired-creation motif, underscoring that the spousal bond mirrors the very structure of God's creation Quran 39:6.