Chapter II: Etiquette of Marriage
Wise sayings : Hazrat Omar said : Two things prevent marriage- inability and being a sinner. It appears from this that religion does not prohibit marriage. Hazrat Ibn Abbas said : No divine service becomes complete without marriage. Hazrat Omar married many wives and said : I marry for children. A companion renunciated the world and stayed with the Prophet and passed nights with him . He said to him : Will you not marry ? He said : O Apostle of God. I am a poor man, I have got no means. Shall I be deprived of rendering service to you ? The Prophet remained silent. He again told this to him and he replied as before. The companion then thought within his mind : The Apostle of God is well aware which thing will bring us near God and what will be our good in this world and the next. I shall certainly marry. The Prophet said to him for the third time : Will you not marry ? He said : O Prophet of God, get me married. A certain hermit was superior for divine service to all the people of his time and when his case was mentioned to the Prophet Of his age^he said : How good he is but he has given up one habit. Being grieved, he asked that Prophet about it and he said : You have not married. He said : I am poor man. I have got no means to bear its expense. He said : I will give my daughter in marriage to you.
This he did .It is said that Hazrat Ali had four wives.
In short, marriage is a part of sunnat and the practices of the Prophets. A man asked Ibrahim-b-Adham : Good news to you.
You can engage yourself in divine service as you are alone. He said : Your prayer in the midst of your family is better than my entire divine service. He asked : Then why do you not marry ?
He said : I have got no necessity of women. I don't wish to retain connection with any women. Some one said : The rank of a married man in comparison with that of an unmarried man is equal to the rank of a Mujahid in comparison with a worshipper.
One rakat prayer of a married man is better than seventy rakats of prayer of an unmarried man.
REASONS FOR NOT MARRYING
The Prophet said : After two hundred years. A man who will have no wife and children will be better. A time will come over men when he will be destroyed by his wife, parents and children.
VoI-II The Book of Wordly Usages 23