The family is the cornerstone of Islam's social structure, its source of stability, and the foundation upon which it may carry out its mission. Islam paid close attention to the development of the family throughout its stages and established all of its specific rights, obligations, morals, and manners within the framework of sensitive emotions that shield it from destructive storms.

Islam desired early marriage in order for the Islamic system to take root and for values that resist deviation and corruption to prevail in society by blocking its pretexts and erecting barriers that prevent its occurrence.

 Nothing protects against deviation more than early marriage, which leads to preoccupation with lofty matters without their insignificance and vulgarity. Early marriage also leads to taking responsibility instead of being preoccupied with empty fun in which the energies of many young people are wasted, and what energies they have!

If the condition for marriage is legal puberty, this does not preclude taking into account psychological maturity and the practical ability to bear the consequences of marriage, both psychologically and physically. This is a relative matter that requires good judgment on the part of parents and moderation and reasonableness in controlling society. We refer to this with the concept of ability, which came in the honorable hadith: "O young men, those among you who can support a wife should marry…"  Sahih Muslim 1400c.

There are many pieces of evidence for encouraging early marriage in the Qur’an and Sunnah, including the Almighty’s saying: "And marry the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male slaves and female slaves. If they should be poor, Allah will enrich them from His bounty, and Allah is all-Encompassing and knowing." (An-Nur: 32); Meaning: Hasten to marry off your young men and women who have no husband.

Abdullah (b. Mas'ud) (Allah be pleased with him) reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said to us: "O young men, those among you who can support a wife should marry, for it restrains eyes (from casting evil glances) and preserves one from immorality; but he who cannot afford It should observe fast for it is a means of controlling the sexual desire."

And Muslim narrated on the authority of Fatimah bint Qais that the Prophet (ﷺ), advised her to marry Osama bin Zaid when her husband divorced her and more than one of the companions wanted to marry her so the Prophet (ﷺ) said to her: "Marry Usamah bin Zaid. So, I married him. And Allah prospered him very much and I was envied.”  Osama bin Zaid was under the age of sixteen at that time.

The Messenger of Allah said: "When someone whose religion and character you are pleased with proposes to (someone under the care) of one of you, then marry to him. If you do not do so, then there will be turmoil (Fitnah) in the land and abounding discord (Fasad)." Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1084

  He called for the facilitation of marriage and the response of matched persons if they came to propose to girls.

And if we try to find the purposes envisaged by the Sharia to encourage early marriage, we find many of those noble purposes, including:

• Early marriage is the best way to protect young men and women from the wide moral corruption that strikes the entire world currently. Corruption that is breaking into people's homes through modern means of communication, with the wide sedition it carries, spreads like wildfire. There is no doubt that early marriage is a protection against falling into these traps of Satan.
• There is no doubt that it is a blessing for a person to have sons and daughters in his youth, so that the sons enjoy the long company of their parents and the abundance of their activity and giving, and the spouses see their grandchildren. This blessing is among the blessings of Alaah Almighty upon His servants Who says: " And Allah has made for you from yourselves mates and has made for you from your mates sons and grandchildren and has provided for you from the good things. Then in falsehood do they believe and in the favor of Allah they disbelieve?" (An-Nahl: 72), and among what historians narrate is that “Amr ibn al-Aas was only twelve years older than his son Abdullah.

Dr Alexis Carrell, in his book " Man The Unknown", says: "The shorter the time distance between two generations, the stronger the literary influence of adults on the young, and therefore women must be mothers at a young age, so that they are not separated from their children by a large gap that cannot be filled, even by love."

• Early marriage also honors the spouses and guarantees their care if they need care. When their children grow up in their youth, then they are more able to honor them, unlike if the marriage is delayed, so the spouses grow up and their children are young or in the beginnings of youth. Caring for parents in old age is one of the goals and valid purposes of marriage. The Almighty says: "And We have enjoined upon man, to his parents, good treatment. His mother carried him with hardship and gave birth to him with hardship, and his gestation and weaning [period] is thirty months. [He grows] until, when he reaches maturity and reaches [the age of] forty years, he says, "My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents and to work righteousness of which You will approve and make righteous for me my offspring. Indeed, I have repented to You, and indeed, I am of the Muslims." [Al-Ahqaf: 15]
• Early marriage is an asset in developing a sense of responsibility among young men and women, with the required rehabilitation and psychological, cognitive and practical preparation at the same time. Instinct is undoubtedly active and present in stimulating early maturity when a young man knows that he has a wife who is his concubine and he is her caretaker, responsible for her and guardian of her, and when the girl knows that she has become in a position of responsibility and the husband and the house have become in her responsibility.
• Early marriage leads to enhancing the psychological health of both spouses when they find someone who takes care of them and takes care of their affairs and is keen to please and make them happy. And in the Holy Book, the Almighty said: " And of His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find tranquillity in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed in that are signs for a people who give thought” (Al-Rum: 21) And the Almighty said: " It is He who created you from one soul and created from it its mate that he might dwell in security with her. And when he covers her, she carries a light burden and continues therein. And when it becomes heavy, they both invoke Allah, their Lord, "If You should give us a good [child], we will surely be among the grateful." (Al-A’raf: 189), There is no doubt that young people need this and are happier with it.
• Early marriage is an aid to worship when the heart is devoted to that, as the soul fulfills its desire from marriage, so it clears its paths for obedience, worship, and noble affairs. Tawoos said: “The ritual of a young man is not complete until he gets married.” Marriage, without a doubt, helps a person to preserve his religion and obey his Lord. Sahl bin Sa'd (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "Whosoever gives me a guarantee to safeguard what is between his jaws and what is between his legs, I shall guarantee him Jannah." [Al-Bukhari].  And in the authentic hadith on the authority of Abu Dharr on the authority of the Prophet, (ﷺ) said: "and in the sexual act of each one of you there is a charity. They said, "O Messenger of Allah, when one of us fulfills his sexual desire will he have some reward for that? He said, "Do you (not) think that were he to act upon it is an unlawfully he would be sinning?" Likewise, if he has acted upon it a lawfully, he will have a reward.
• Early marriage is a pre-emptive confrontation with the phenomenon of spinsterhood, which has become rampant in Muslim societies until we have millions of girls in every Muslim country who have reached the age of thirty without marriage. Life is not upright, and the divine honor of man is not achieved without emotional and instinctive gratification. It is astonishing that the West opens the door to unbridled sexual relations to both sexes at a young age, and we stress ourselves in marriage in a way that great interests are lost and great corruptions are replaced.

Together, these considerations call on us, as Muslims, to reconsider the issue of marriage in order to facilitate its causes without extravagance, to expedite it without procrastination, and to celebrate it as a ritual, law, obedience, worship, guidance, and building.

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