More than twenty years before any search engine had responded to the two words, “Islamic marriage,” a future writer who would tackle that topic sat at a restaurant table. She was listening to a conversation that focused on her sister’s wedding plans. The conversation had turned to discussion of the organization that employed the future groom. He then played the trombone in the Army band.

The band player shared at least one thing with his future Father-in-law. They both played brass instruments. Yet the future Father-in-law played the trumpet, and he had once served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

It was therefore understandable that the future bride’s father chose to say, “I thought there was only one band—the Marine Corps band.”

Eight years later the new Iranian government seemed to view Islamic marriage in much the same way as ex-Marines view the Marine Corps band. The government indicated that it looked askance at any marriage other than the Islamic marriage. The Iranian government put forth that indication by jailing a young Baha’i gentleman.

The government did not accuse him of failure to maintain Islamic standards during a period of Islamic dating. The government said that since he and his wife had not had an Islamic marriage, he and his wife were living in sin. In a theocratic society, such an action could, of course, be seen as grounds for arrest.

The decision to base an arrest on the absence of an Islamic marriage typified the government’s effort to destroy the Baha’i Faith. Baha’is were not radical people. They respected many of the traditions that had become part of Islamic dating. Yet the Baha’is were members of a religious group that felt very strongly the persecuting power of the theocracy in Iran.

The Baha’is were persecuted because the teachings of their Faith challenged the finality of Mohammed’s teachings. Iran’s religious leaders did not encourage anyone to challenge the Islamic teachings. Ironically, those same leaders did not dispute the claims of President Ahmadinejad.

The President of Iran had repeatedly made reference to a certain Islamic teaching. That was a prophecy about the return of the 12th Imam. The President claimed that the world was now at a state that would suggest the imminence of such a return.

So how does that prophecy relate to the Islamic marriage? Well, the Baha’is believe that the world is indeed ready for a “12th Imam.” In fact they believe that the returned “12th Imam” has already walked on this earth. As Baha’is, they wed according to the Baha;i marriage laws.

The government of Iran did not want to recognize the Baha’i marriage of the young man mentioned earlier in this article. Government leaders were comfortable discussing the possible return of the 12th Imam, but not talk that suggested his actual return. Such talk would, of course, suggest that God had found reason to make changes in the Islamic teachings.

One such change might deal with Islamic marriage. It might in fact shed light on the wedding ceremony that had landed one young Iranian in jail.