The Positive Effect of Early Marriage

Marriage is a moral safeguard as well as a social building block that covenant between two individuals, man and woman. Through marriage, families are established and the family is considered to be the fundamental unit of our society. Furthermore, marriage is the only valid or halal way to indulge in intimacy between a man and a woman. Many societies states that early marriage is the marriage of children below the age of 18. But, early marriage also can be specific to the university students who getting marriage while there are still studying.
Dr. Sherif Mohammed ( n.d. ) stated that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala knows that the human heart is not a static entity, it is sometimes weak and at times dynamic. Feelings can change with time and love may wither and fade away. The marital bond might weaken if not properly cared for. So, happiness in marriage cannot be taken for granted, it must be continuous happiness that will requires constant giving from both sides. Therefore, to protect our heart from doing forbidden things such as fornication, it is better for teenagers especially students to marriage at the early age. Early marriage would not be a burden to one’s life but they can get the positive impact and always get blessing from Allah.
The best example is our Prophet Salallahu ‘aliahi wa’sallam, where the Prophet married his wife, Siti Khadijah at the age of 25 years. The Prophet Muhammad said that,

“ Do not delay in three things; 1) The offering of the obligatory prayer. 2) The offering of the funeral prayer when the deceased’s body is present. 3) The marriage of a woman when her couple is found.” (narrated by Tirmidzi)
One can see from this statement that it orders us to marry when the partner is found and not delaying it for too long time. It can avoid from fornication and homosexuality.
Generally, people put the wedding business as a very important thing to be done with responsibility and awareness. An adult community should be more open and mature in discussing the issue of marriage, because the flow of life continues to change from time to time leading to thoughts and actions of young people to differ according to environmental factors, educational background and economic status. (Shahina Siddiqui, n.d. )
Besides that, marriage while still studying has its benefits and challenges. Challenges that, if managed properly, then the marriage will be able to provide a positive impact on students, while if otherwise, it can certainly be a big problem for students. According to the John Zhang ( n.d. ), one of the benefit of early marriage is the children would be protected from evils such as rape, and casual sex. This shows that when chastity is valued, it like a great motivating factors for early marriage. Meanwhile, marriage while still studying can motivate them to become more responsible and mature in their decision-making and actions on either learning or family. Their life is also more organized and structured in terms of time and activities. It also can improved reproductive health and child survival and welfare. (Naana Otoo-Oyortey and Sonita Pobi ,2003).
However, there are some challenge in the early marriage that they need to face with it. The major problems that will arise after marriage is the financial problems. It was the big problems to overcome this issues. One of the best way is they need to saving their money properly and do the budget for their expenses. When they want buy something, they must buy something that is more necessity in their households. As stated in Quran,
“And let those (executors and guardians) fear (injustice) as if they (themselves) had left weak offspring behind and feared for them. So let them fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice.” ( 4:9)
From the above verse, He emphasized that man need to have a planning for the future of the family and need to be wisely in managing the property dan finance.