Can a Muslim marry a Christian? Interfaith marriage

Interfaith marriage is treated differently by each Abrahamic tradition. Can a Muslim marry a Christian or a Jew? Each of the Abrahamic traditions has rules on marriage across religious lines, and Islam’s are the most open of the three toward the People of the Book.

The Islamic rule

The Qur’an permits a Muslim man to marry a chaste woman from among those given the scripture before, Jewish or Christian, in the same verse that makes their food lawful to Muslims.¹ It forbids marriage with idolaters until they believe, and it does not permit Muslim women to marry men outside the faith.² The reason classical jurists gave is the husband’s place as head of the household: a Muslim husband is bound to honour his wife’s faith, while a non-Muslim husband is under no such obligation toward Islam.

ٱلْيَوْمَ أُحِلَّ لَكُمُ ٱلطَّيِّبَـٰتُ ۖ وَطَعَامُ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ حِلٌّ لَّكُمْ وَطَعَامُكُمْ حِلٌّ لَّهُمْ ۖ وَٱلْمُحْصَنَـٰتُ مِنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنَـٰتِ وَٱلْمُحْصَنَـٰتُ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ إِذَآ ءَاتَيْتُمُوهُنَّ أُجُورَهُنَّ مُحْصِنِينَ غَيْرَ مُسَـٰفِحِينَ وَلَا مُتَّخِذِىٓ أَخْدَانٍ ۗ وَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِٱلْإِيمَـٰنِ فَقَدْ حَبِطَ عَمَلُهُۥ وَهُوَ فِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ مِنَ ٱلْخَـٰسِرِينَ ٥

This day [all] good foods have been made lawful, and the food of those who were given the Scripture is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them. And [lawful in marriage are] chaste women from among the believers and chaste women from among those who were given the Scripture before you, when you have given them their due compensation, desiring chastity, not unlawful sexual intercourse or taking [secret] lovers. And whoever denies the faith – his work has become worthless, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.

Qur’an 5:5³

What Islamic law guaranteed the wife

The protection was real. In his comparison of Jewish life under medieval Islam and Christendom, the historian Mark Cohen records that Islamic law required a Muslim husband to allow his Jewish wife to keep her religious rites, to pray in the family house, to keep the Sabbath and to observe the dietary laws.⁴ Christian Europe, by contrast, regarded such marriages with horror.

Judaism and Christianity

The Torah forbade Israel to intermarry with the peoples of Canaan, and Jewish law has generally prohibited marriage outside the faith.⁵ Paul told Christians not to be ‘unequally yoked’ with unbelievers.⁶ In Catholic law today a marriage between a Catholic and an unbaptised person, including a Muslim or a Jew, is invalid without an express dispensation, and the Catholic must promise to raise the children in the Church.⁷

The verse explains the Islamic position from within. It places marriage beside food in a single sentence, making the households of Jews and Christians a place where Muslims may eat and marry. Few religious laws express so much respect for another community’s faith.

Further reading: Food and faith, Religious law in the Abrahamic traditions.

Notes on interfaith marriage

1. Qur’an 5:5, trans. Saheeh International; Arabic text from Quran.com. ↩
2. Qur’an 2:221; 60:10. ↩
3. Qur’an 5:5, trans. Saheeh International; Arabic text from Quran.com. ↩
4. Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994; new edition 2008), as described by the publisher. Cf. Daniel Pipes, review of the same, 1995. ↩
5. Deuteronomy 7:3-4. ↩
6. 2 Corinthians 6:14. ↩
7. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1635. ↩