Written by a very good friend Aboo banaat, so i felt i should share


In many cultures, especially in yoruba land, for cousins to get married is seen as a taboo simply because they are related! Who can make haram that which Allah in his wisdom has declared halal?


Yoruba people do say:

"The reason why chinese and japanese people resemble eachother so much is because cousins do marry eachother a lot there" This is a blatant lie, infact a 10gigabyte lie.


The best of mankind himself, got married to one of his cousins, zainab bint jahsh! The prophet sallalahu alayhi wassalam also gave fatimah radiAllahu anha out in marriage to her cousin, Ali ibn abu taalib radiAllahu anhu! If it was haram, would the prophet do it?


Umar bn khattab radiAllah anhu also married one of his cousins, atikah bint zaid al adaweeyah
(Check: al isabah fi maarifati sahabah).

Later, he also proposed to another cousin of his, umm salamah, radiAllah anha, but she rejected his proposal for a different reason and later became one of the ummahatul mu'mineen! (Check: al bidayah wan nihayah)


Many other examples happened within the companions and other pious predecessors, so who are the 21st century muslims trying to prohibit it?


This is why you need to be careful the way you relate with your cousins, as much as your cousin is related to you, he can also marry you, so do not remove your hijab or shake hands or mix excessively with him.


Treat him or her the way you treat a non'mahram!
Islam is not about assumption but about certainty, know who your cousins are and mind how you relate with them!


If other women refuse to accept your proposal, go and propose to your cousin, atleast she go gree, Lol.
So islam is a straight path, don't use your cultural beliefs to bend islam to the right or to the left!

Wakulu adha astaqfirullaha wa atoobu Ilayhi

[s]I think there was a hadith that talked about regulation of cousin marriages but it wasn't from a reliable source, so I am not sure.[/s]

However, there are increased chances of birth defects and genetic disorders that happen as a result of first cousin marriages.

Modified- There is no authentic hadith that mentioned that

snapscore:
I think there was a hadith that talked about regulation of cousin marriages but it wasn't from a reliable source, so I am not sure.

you could search for it again and provide the hadeeth.

However, there are increased chances of birth defects and genetic disease that happen as a result of first cousin marriages.

are there no chances of genetic diseases between unrelated persons? there is, and your post suggests you know this, from what i read sometimes ago, the chances increases by 2% between first cousins, which is small.

insha Allâh, i will see if i can search for that article again.

AbdelKabir:


you could see it you can provide the hadeeth again...



are there no chances of genetic diseases between unrelated persons? there is, and your post suggests you know this, from what i read sometimes ago, the chances increases by 2% between first cousins, which is small.

insha Allâh, i will see if i can search for that article again.

In unrelated people the chances are less likely but with cousins the chances are increased because their genes are similar (autosomal recessive diseases) especially if it isn't the first time cousins are marrying[s].That was was the hadeeth talked about- generational cousin marriages.[/s] I will try searching for it. I heard it from Zakir Naik.

Modified- Searched for the hadith I couldn't find but the ones I found (which was also extremely difficult to find) was classified as very weak or fabricated. http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2011/10/07/did-the-prophet-peace-be-upon-him-discourage-marrying-cousins/

The video I heard the hadith from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV0S07EakCs

snapscore:


In unrelated people the chances are less likely but with cousins the chances are increased because their genes are similar (autosomal recessive diseases) especially if it isn't the first time cousins are marrying.That was was the hadeeth talked about- generational cousin marriages. I will try searching for it. I heard it from Zakir Naik.

Modified- Search the hadith I couldn't find but the ones I found (which was also extremly difficult to find) was classified as very weak or fabricated. http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2011/10/07/did-the-prophet-peace-be-upon-him-discourage-marrying-cousins/

The video I heard the hadith from https://ww.youtube.com/watch?v=JV0S07EakCs

well since the hadeeth is classed as extremely weak, then we should leave it, attributing a hadeeth you are not sure of its authenticity is dangerous.

now upon what i just saw now about the chances of genetical disease, this article http://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask65 claims recent research says its 3 to 4% and increases by 2 to 3% in first cousins, which is actually smaller than what people believe. maybe i should paste the full article here;

Question: My husband and I are first cousins and I am worried about our future kids. Are our kids at a very high risk of coming out retarded or something? People are always drawing that annoying conclusion and I try not to let it bother me...I've done some slight research on the subject and know that it is not necessarily true but it still bothers me.

-An undergraduate student from New York

I can see why you might be concerned about your kids. We've all heard about what supposedly happens if cousins marry. A recent study, though, showed that while there is increased risk of some genetic disease, the risk is actually smaller than a lot of people might think.

The numbers from this study are pretty interesting. For unrelated people, the risk of having a child with a serious genetic problem is around 3 or 4 percent. In other words, 3 or 4 of every 100 babies have potential problems (seems high to me but that is what the report claims).

If first cousins have kids, that risk goes up by 2 or 3 percent. At first this almost doubling of the risk might seem scary. But many genetic advisers argue that the increase isn't big enough to discourage marriage between first cousins.

Why all the concern then? If we think about all of this genetically, we can begin to see where the worry might come from.

Remember, we all have two copies of each of our genes -- one from mom and one from dad. We also have on average around 5-10 disease genes each. So how come we all aren't wracked by genetic diseases?

Because most of these "bad" copies of genes are recessive. What recessive means is that you need both copies to be bad to get a disease -- a single good copy can save you.

If we all shared the same disease genes, then the likelihood of kids getting these diseases would be high. But we don't. Everyone has a different set of hidden disease genes so that the odds are against people each giving one of the same bad genes to their kids.

Now, the more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they'll share the same set of hidden disease genes. People might have thought that first cousins were too closely related and so there would be a big increase in genetic diseases if cousins marry.

The data doesn't really show this. And if we think about it, it probably isn't surprising that the risk is small for first cousins.

There are lots of places in the Middle East, Africa and Asia where marriages between first cousins are encouraged. There is no rampant genetic disease in these places suggesting all along that the risk was low.

You may want to talk with a genetic counselor about the increased risks. They can help you decide whether the small increased risk is acceptable to you.

^^^^ @snapscore my post is back...

AbdelKabir:

well since the hadeeth is classed as extremely weak, then we should leave it, attributing a hadeeth you are not sure of its authenticity is dangerous.

I thought that since I mentioned I wasn't sure and I stated it was from an unreliable source then I wasn't attributing it.

now upon what i just saw now about the chances of genetical disease, this article http://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask65 claims recent research says its 3 to 4% and increases by 2 to 3% in first cousins, which is actually smaller than what people believe. maybe i should paste the full article here;

[i]Question: My husband and I are first cousins and I am worried about our future kids. Are our kids at a very high risk of coming out retarded or something? People are always drawing that annoying conclusion and I try not to let it bother me...I've done some slight research on the subject and know that it is not necessarily true but it still bothers me.

-An undergraduate student from New York

I can see why you might be concerned about your kids. We've all heard about what supposedly happens if cousins marry. A recent study, though, showed that while there is increased risk of some genetic disease, the risk is actually smaller than a lot of people might think.

The numbers from this study are pretty interesting. For unrelated people, the risk of having a child with a serious genetic problem is around 3 or 4 percent. In other words, 3 or 4 of every 100 babies have potential problems (seems high to me but that is what the report claims).

If first cousins have kids, that risk goes up by 2 or 3 percent. At first this almost doubling of the risk might seem scary. But many genetic advisers argue that the increase isn't big enough to discourage marriage between first cousins.

Why all the concern then? If we think about all of this genetically, we can begin to see where the worry might come from.

OK

Remember, we all have two copies of each of our genes -- one from mom and one from dad. We also have on average around 5-10 disease genes each. So how come we all aren't wracked by genetic diseases?

Because most of these "bad" copies of genes are recessive. What recessive means is that you need both copies to be bad to get a disease -- a single good copy can save you.

If we all shared the same disease genes, then the likelihood of kids getting these diseases would be high. But we don't. Everyone has a different set of hidden disease genes so that the odds are against people each giving one of the same bad genes to their kids.

Now, the more closely related two people are, the more likely it is that they'll share the same set of hidden disease genes. People might have thought that first cousins were too closely related and so there would be a big increase in genetic diseases if cousins marry.

The data doesn't really show this. And if we think about it, it probably isn't surprising that the risk is small for first cousins.

To understand what data really shows about marrying cousins, we will have to look at societies where it is common. When cousins marry, there are higher chances of getting autosomal recessive diseases because both parent are likely to carry genes for the same disease. This chance increases to 25%. For example we usually don't encourage people who are AS to marry each other because there is an increased risk of getting a child with SS. But sickle cell is common and well known.
However, there are extremely rare diseases like PKU, or even Lafora disease which people may carry genetically. Lofora for example doesn't have any cure and cannot be managed. If both parents carry the risk 1 in 4 child in likely to have it but it doesn't always work that way. From my personal experience, the lady had six children 2 died from it and have been buried, the other 2 are in a vegetative state and are kept alive by a ventilator and feeding tube.The last 2 children aren't of age to start showing symptoms. This may or may not be the case like in couples with AS genotype when they marry- the risk is only 25%- 25 out of a 100 children. Sometimes all the children come out AS, sometimes some and other times none but more often than not at least one child has the genes for SS.

There are lots of places in the Middle East, Africa and Asia where marriages between first cousins are encouraged. There is no rampant genetic disease in these places suggesting all along that the risk was low.

I am not sure what year this this was dated from there are genetic disorders that are common in the Middle East and rare elsewhere or even unknown. There have also been increased awareness in genetic disorders as a result of consanguineous marriage as well as genetic counselling which is why the Gulf states made it compulsory to people intending to marry to get genetic counselling.

- In a report in the Middle East Journal of Family Medicine, Dr. Aida Al-Aqeel, pediatric geneticist and endocrinologist at Riyadh Military Hospital, wrote, “ In Saudi Arabia like other Middle Eastern countries, first cousin marriages account for 60 - 70% of all marriages, leading to uniquely common disorders which are either rare by Western standards or are unknown.
A review of the files of the Armed Forces Hospital and the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, over 10 years period, documented more than 150 varieties of neurodegenerative disease among 2,000 children. Some autosomal recessive disorders are common, such as sickle cell anemia and thalassaemia. Others are unique.”

Maple Syrup Urine Disease is a rare but is common is Saudi. It is an inherited disorder in which the body lacks the enzymes that process two of the essential amino acids. If untreated within the first week or two of the infant’s life, the condition may lead to seizures, mental retardation, coma, and death. If, however, it was spotted early enough by the family or physician, with a strictly modified diet, the child can lead a normal, healthy, and active life.
Another genetic disorder, which is common in Saudi Arabia, is PKU (phenylketonuria). The affected individual is unable to metabolize phenylalanine, an amino acid, a building block of proteins.For someone with PKU, phenylalanine builds up in the blood to high, toxic levels and it can cause intellectual disability and other serious health problems.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-culture/2015/04/04/Health-fears-question-Arab-tradition-of-cousin-marriages-.html

- Similarly, a study carried out in Egypt found that consanguineous marriage was highly significant in autosomal recessive diseases (78.8%). It was detected in 93.4% of cases of sensorineural deafness, 89.4% of cases of Phenylketonuria, 78.1% of epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica patients,70% of cases of mucopolysaccaridosis, and 69.8% of neurodegenerative disease cases. Stillbirths, child deaths and recurrent abortions ( ie miscarriages) were significantly increased among consanguineous parents (80.6% for stillbirth, 80% for child death, and 67% for miscarriages.

- That corresponds with another study Bradford in the UK showed that 31% of all birth defects in children of Pakistani origin were from consanguineous marriages. They also stated that the risk increases specifically in Pakistanis from 3-6 and also in British women aged 34 and above. This itself may suggest that ethnicity can play a role.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jul/04/marriage-first-cousins-birth-defects

- Two different studies in Iran also showed that congential malformations postively correlated with congenital abnormalities. Miscarriages and still births were 1.5 - 2.3 more common in consanguineous marriages. In one of the studies that only two babies born with genital ambiguity during the time of the study were of parents who had consanguineous marriages. The other studied showed that three of babies born with the same abnormalities were also of consanguineous marriages. Although both studies mentioned that the rates of congenital abnormalities were generally low, abnormalities birth were significantly higher in consanguineous couples. I think I should also mentioned both studies used lower samples of consanguineous marriages.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215379/
http://applications.emro.who.int/emhj/1304/13_4_2007_868_875.pdf?ua=1

- A study carried out in Palestine also showed that higher prevalence of congenital abnormalities existed in children of of consanguineous marriages. They also stated that risks may also depend on geographical locations, ethic groups and environmental factors.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305864500_Consanguineous_Marriage_and_Its_Effect_on_Offspring_Congenital_Malformation_A_Study_among_Palestinian_Rural_Community

- Lastly, there have been studies that show that consanguineous marriages increases the chances of having children with ambiguous genitals but I haven't read about the prevalence in the Middle East or Gulf but I know that it is not very uncommon to hear of.

- I also found studies in India but I wasn't ure how close the relations were so I am not going to post it.

- Now the reasons I am posting all these is not to say marrying your cousin is not acceptable or extremely risky. It's just to show that there are significant risks worth mentioning, especially with regards to autosomal recessive diseases. If the risks were very little, we won't be seeing the problems we see in the Middle East or Asia. If anyone intends to marry their cousins by all means go ahead, but it's worth going for genetic counselling first.

I can marry my cousin

nice one op,jazakhumllahu akhiran

Jazakallahu khayran @AbdelKabir for sharing, it is very important that Muslims know that cousins are not part of those we cannot marry and therefore apply proper Islamic etiquette when in contact with them, although sometimes, it may be difficult due to cultural reasons, but that is not an excuse as such. It should also be noted that in some cases, the unguarded association with cousins, and even other close relatives, lead to immoral acts...

This issue was brought by an atheist to this section to condemn Islam and Muslims, here is one of my response (edited) to him, which I think may be beneficial here...

Cousin marriage is permissible in Islam, it is not compulsory, there are benefits and not until recently, we hear and see a problem associated with it such as this.

So what does Islam prescribe?

Allah Says in the glorious Qur’an, “and don’t take your souls to destruction” , in light of this verse, a Muslim is not expected to get involved in things that may harm him or his family(progeny inclusive ) (Scholars have used this verse to make fatwa against smoking, which is not explicitly stated haram in the Qur’an), So when the disadvantages of a permissible act are so prominent and has to do with life, Islam gives us the right to abstain from it.

Be that as it may, Islam goes in pari passu with development in beneficial knowledge; hence the advancement and understanding which science has brought would help in preventing cases of birth defects.

It is a fact that prenatal diagnoses are available in analyzing most genetic disorders in fetus; I also learnt recently that there are centers for testing to-be couples in the Middle East which diagnose these diseases… In 1990, The World Islamic League passed a fatwa permitting abortion up to 120days after conception if the fetus is diagnosed with a serious disorder.

All in all, there is awareness about it, and proactive steps are being taken to tackle this problem. Check this site: http://www.cags.org.ae

Most of these birth defects are as a result of mutation in the genes, even if you go and marry from Russia, if your spouse is a carrier of a defective gene (or is affected with a disorder) and it is inheritable (Autosomal, X,Y linked etc. dominant or recessive), the chances of your children having a genetic disorder is probable. The reason why a background check is necessary before you go all lovey-dovey and saying, marry me or yes I do.

https://www.nairaland.com/1448664/muslim-countries-found-highest-rates

JazakaAllahu khairan for d clarity

JazakumLlahu Khaeran for this lecture

Cousin marriage is grotesque and leads to health problems in the offspring.

The Yoruba proverb is right.

If the Quran claims that it is halal and medical science proves that it is dangerous then it's obvious what has to be done - ignore the falsehood and follow reason.

Was ali fatima's cousin or her uncle?

true2god:
Use your common sense. You live in the age of information and enlightenment. You should think better than Mohammed, Ali and Fatima now. Don't allow a barbaric Arabian culture destroy your great African culture.

thanks for your advice, i realy appreciate your stupidity

Ahmadgani:
Was ali fatima's cousin or her uncle?

Ali was her cousin, there is a hadeeth in tirmidhi where it was narrated that Fatima and Ali had a husband and wife kinda little quarrel, so Ali left home in annoyance to the mosque, when the prophet got home he asked fatima "WHERE IS YOUR COUSIN".

Family marriage and inbreed! It has nothing to do with religion! Gorillas, lions and other large animals chase the active males out of the family to prevent inbreeding!

AbooUthaymeen:


Ali was her cousin, there is a hadeeth in tirmidhi where it was narrated that Fatima and Ali had a husband and wife kinda little quarrel, so Ali left home in annoyance to the mosque, when the prophet got home he asked fatima "WHERE IS YOUR COUSIN".

masha Allah. Biologicaly, the prophet (saw) is ali's cousin.

Allahu a'alam

Ahmadgani:
masha Allah. Biologicaly, the prophet (saw) is ali's cousin.

Allahu a'alam

which makes Ali a second cousin to faatimah radiyAllàhu anhumaa.

Some relatives (cousins) are too close to the point that there is zero sexual attractions BTW them. This is common in Yorubaland.

I think reason yorubas consider it taboo is bcuz of chances of them having birth defects. Unfortunately, marriage to cousin is not mentioned amongst those women forbidden to marry. It is pretty much MUSTAHAB as stated in the Hambali school.

There is another case of Kalif Umar (ra) instructed a man to marry outside of his family bcuz they are thin and sick. This is exceptional case. Fact is, it is not haram but it doesn't go down well with yoruba and that's understandable.

Myself can't bcuz we are so close and no such feelings. And we don't even use cousin, nephew, uncle, aunt etc. You are either daddy, mommy, brother mi, sister mi regardless.

Other families may be different.

Yuck!! I can't even swallow the thought.

Incest, inbreeding can cause severe birth defects.

In a thread, no sunnatic brother has explain how Cain married. If cain killed his brother over his sister(I wonder which God will allow that) and married her and other Adam's children married themselves, there will be a lot of damage to humanity(genes) because there is going to be severe birth defects and early death, abnormal genetic from generation to generation, I'm yet to read how Cain get a wife.

Marrying to first degree relatives or any relatives can cause defects to the gene and children.

When we talk about cousins, how genetic are they close?

- Father-daughter, Mother-son, Brother-sister this incestuous relationship is very high risk to severe birth defects to the children and to the gene.

- Cousin-cousin, it depends on how close thier genetic is, if their children escape birth defect, their gene won't escape it, many of their children will have it in their gene leading to birth defect in future generations.

Here is what Wikipedia says:

Since relatives share a higher proportion of their genes than do unrelated people, it is more likely that related parents will both be carriers of the same recessive allele, and therefore their children are at a higher risk of inheriting an autosomal recessive genetic disorder. The extent to which the risk increases depends on the degree of genetic relationship between the parents; the risk is greater when the parents are close relatives and lower for relationships between more distant relatives, such as second cousins, though still greater than for the general population.[18]

Children of parent-child or sibling-sibling unions are at an increased risk compared to cousin-cousin unions.[19] Inbreeding may result in a greater than expected phenotypic expression of deleterious recessive alleles within a population.[20] As a result, first-generation inbred individuals are more likely to show physical and health defects

It continues:


Effect:

Inbreeding increases the chances of the expression of deleterious recessive alleles by increasing homozygosity and therefore has the potential to decrease the fitness of the offspring. With continuous inbreeding, genetic variation is lost and homozygosity is increased, enabling the expression of recessive deleterious alleles in homozygotes. The inbreeding coefficient, a term used to describe the degree of inbreeding in an individual, is an estimate of the percent of homozygous alleles in the overall genome.[49] The more biologically related the parents are, the greater the inbreeding coefficient (See Coefficient of Inbreeding), since their genomes have many similarities already. This overall homozygosity becomes an issue when there are deleterious recessive alleles in the gene pool of the family.[50] By pairing chromosomes of similar genomes, the chance for these recessive alleles to pair and become homozygous greatly increases, leading to offspring with autosomal recessive disorders.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding

^^

Thread destroyed

AbdelKabir:
Written by a very good friend Aboo banaat, so i felt i should share


In many cultures, especially in yoruba land, for cousins to get married is seen as a taboo simply because they are related! Who can make haram that which Allah in his wisdom has declared halal?


Yoruba people do say:

"The reason why chinese and japanese people resemble eachother so much is because cousins do marry eachother a lot there" This is a blatant lie, infact a 10gigabyte lie.


The best of mankind himself, got married to one of his cousins, zainab bint jahsh! The prophet sallalahu alayhi wassalam also gave fatimah radiAllahu anha out in marriage to her cousin, Ali ibn abu taalib radiAllahu anhu! If it was haram, would the prophet do it?


Umar bn khattab radiAllah anhu also married one of his cousins, atikah bint zaid al adaweeyah
(Check: al isabah fi maarifati sahabah).

Later, he also proposed to another cousin of his, umm salamah, radiAllah anha, but she rejected his proposal for a different reason and later became one of the ummahatul mu'mineen! (Check: al bidayah wan nihayah)


Many other examples happened within the companions and other pious predecessors, so who are the 21st century muslims trying to prohibit it?


This is why you need to be careful the way you relate with your cousins, as much as your cousin is related to you, he can also marry you, so do not remove your hijab or shake hands or mix excessively with him.


Treat him or her the way you treat a non'mahram!
Islam is not about assumption but about certainty, know who your cousins are and mind how you relate with them!


If other women refuse to accept your proposal, go and propose to your cousin, atleast she go gree, Lol.
So islam is a straight path, don't use your cultural beliefs to bend islam to the right or to the left!

Wakulu adha astaqfirullaha wa atoobu Ilayhi

I read a lot of Prophet Muhammad (SA) children died.

There is nothing wrong for cousins to marry each other. Whether first or hundred. Presence or absence of genetic problem depends on each individual which can only be determine by a medical test.

tintingz:
I read a lot of Prophet Muhammad (SA) children died.

ok.

AbdelKabir:


ok.

FriendChoice:
There is nothing wrong for cousins to marry each other. Whether first or hundred.

SMH, did you read the medical condition behind inbreeding or you just wanna act ignorant?

Cousins can love each other that's their choice but having inbred or incestuous children is something not good to the gene/humanity.

tintingz:
SMH, did you read the medical condition behind inbreeding or you just wanna act ignorant?

It's something am studying not reading. Cousins marriage is Halal, first or Hundred. several individuals have different genetic constituent. That genetic disorder in question is very negligible. The marriage should only be avoided in the case where a trusted physician have certified that the offspring(s) of a particular couples will potentially posses a rare genetic disorder . But this cannot be generalized for all humans (Muslim).