Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips is a prominent Canadian Muslim scholar, who was born as a Christian in Jamaica in 1947 and grew up in Canada, where he accepted Islam in 1972. He completed a diploma in Arabic and a B.A. from the College of Islamic Disciplines (Usool ad-Deen) at the Islamic University of Madeenah in 1979. At the University of Riyadh, College of Education, he completed a M.A. in Islamic Theology in 1985, and in the department of Islamic Studies at the University of Wales, he completed a Ph.D. in Islamic Theology in 1994. Bilal Philips is regularity invited to mosques in Canada and abroad to speak about the teachings of Islam.
In one of his lectures Bilal Philp discussed the issue of early marriage in Islam:
Here in our lives where this attitude of time, spare time, we have time, you don’t need to do this now, is the area of marriage. Young people when they reach the age of marriage. Parents are saying to them. Don’t get married, no. Wait, finish your studies and. Wait until you’ve got a job and you earned enough and you can build this thing and that, yeah, that’s the time. So that doesn’t happen until you are in your thirties. Right? That may be ok for the man. But for the woman it becomes a problem.
“It becomes a problem. Delaying Marriage. And the Prophet [Mohammad] peace be upon him told us: يا معشر الشباب من استطاع منكم الباءة فليتزوج O young people who ever among you are able should get married.
He said get married young. Get married young and we delay. So what happens? Those years, which are the most critical years, the years in which hormones are flowing, desires are strong. We tell them don’t get married.
So what happens? People just turn it off and say ok. Turn off the desires, I’ll carry on. No. They end up in corruption. Either they’re watching, you know, pornographic stuff, which they shouldn’t be watching the channels etc. Now that these things are all available in this society or they engage, get caught up in masturbation or something like this, whatever they’re going end up doing things that they don’t need to be doing things, which are harmful to them. harmful to the society.
That’s the consequence. Once we delay [marriage] it brings in corruption. Worse than that, you end up with lesbianism, homosexuality gets born out of those circumstances.
So the harm is great. We should marry young. We should marry our children young. And just so that you don’t think he’s saying that. It’s easy for him to say that. You know, my son was 16 years old, I got him married at 16. His wife was 18.
They now have 6 kids, live in Dubai. Having a happy life. A good life God Willing (انشالله). My other son who just turned 17, he’s going to get married in August, God Willing, his wife is 15. So it can be done.
You know who am I, you know, I‘m a convert Muslim. When I was studying in [the City of] Madeenah, I met one brother. Saudi in Madeenah. He had gotten married when he was 3 years old. I was shocked, 3 years old. Yeah, he got married [when] his wife was 2 and he was 3. Yeah. Not a problem. Praise be to Allah [الحَمْد لله] they are happily married, have bunch of kids and, you know, sure.
When the Prophet [Mohammad] peace be upon him said, marry young and have a lot of kids, you see, he has all the opportunity. I mean you’ll be able to to to play with your great grandchildren, you know, you would not be so old you can’t even, you know, you’re lying on the bed all you can do is look at them and you can actually go and play with them, your great grandchildren.
So, Praise be to Allah, I’m not going to say that you have to go and do that with your kids now, but I‘m just saying that you know, it works. There’s no harm in it in fact it prevents corruption and prevents corruption.