considerable portion of the Islamic jurisprudence discourses involves various relationships of the Muslims with the adherents of other religions. One of these relations, perpetually subject to serious disputes among the jurists, is the marital relationships. Some have openly regarded it as forbidden; others have partially accepted it; yet, some have totally taken it as permissible. Dealing with this issue in our time, in which the dominant principle in the world is freedom of marital relationships regardless of one’s faith (article 16 of Human Rights), is undoubtedly of more importance than ever before. In this article, the writer has first brought up in a new way the viewpoints of the Muslim (Imāmī, Zaydī, and Sunnī) jurists and examined the stance of civil law and personal status in Iran and other significant Muslim countries. Then, upon description of each group of the jurists’ evidences, he goes on to criticize them through legal reasoning (ijtahādī), and after purging the evidences of those maintaining the absolute permissibility, opts for this view and vindicates it in an innovative way. The writer, also, reminds the philosophy of this verdict and finally addresses the rights of the non-Muslim spouse, which is a new notion in itself.
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