Author
Abstract
Islamic jurisprudence concerning the male-female relationships relies upon the mahram / non-mahram concepts. In the contemporary religious literature, one, usually a stranger, who is a mahram to someone of the opposite gender (as enumerated in Islamic law) can establish an acceptable kind of friendship, whereas lacking such a feature (failure to become mahrams) means that there is an unorthodox boundary for the interactions between the two genders. On the one hand, the view of the Islamic culture is to keep the relationships between boys and girls to a minimum; on the other hand, however, the only opportunity for a prudent relationship between boys and girls is when they have a serious plan for marriage. Beyond the limits of the family and religious marriage, virtually all emotional, intimate and love relations are despicable and religiously unlawful or a path to pave the way towards great sins. In the past there had been a social acceptance relying the local and traditional criteria which could practically lead to timely marriage at the beginning of puberty; given the above, the main question in this paper is how it is possible to regulate the time gap which exists between puberty and the time of marriage, under the present circumstances where as a result of the expanded network of relationships, the society encounters reduced age of puberty and increased age of marriage. This paper seeks to seek feasibility of a regulated management of the period between puberty and the time of permanent marriage, and that upon the theory of Islamic friendship.
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