The Ruling on Being Disinclined to Marry for the Purpose of Devoting Oneself to Allah

Question :

Some young men excuse their reluctance to marry on the fact that it interferes with their worship and their devotion to Allah. What is your comment on this?

Answer:

Our comment on this excuse is that it is weak; indeed, it is dead, because the Prophet rejected refusal of marriage in order to devote oneself to Allah for those of the Companions who wanted to do it and he said:
"I fast and I break my fast; I stand (in the night prayer) and I sleep; and I marry women, so whoever disliked my Sunnah is not from me.''

Those people should know that marriage is a form of worship; indeed it is one of the best forms of worship, so much so that, some of the scholars may Allah have mercy on them have declared that marriage with desire is better than supererogatory acts of worship.

Many of the scholars have declared that it is an obligation that is, marriage and there is no doubt that the reward of the obligatory deed is greater than the reward of the preferred deed and the obligatory deed is more loved by Allah than the supererogatory, as Allah, Most High says, in the Hadith Qudsi:
"My servant does not come nearer to Me by anything more beloved to Me than those acts which I have enjoined upon him. And My servant continues to draw closer to Me by supererogatory acts until I love him."

In this Hadith there is evidence that Allah, Most High loves obligatory acts more than He loves the supererogatory.

So we advise these young men who use this weak excuse or rather, this dead excuse to fear Allah, the Almighty, the All-Powerful and to marry, in obedience to the command of the Messenger of Allah and following his Sunnah and the Sunnah of his brothers among the Messengers, peace be upon them, and in order to increase the numbers in the Muslim community, and so that Allah may benefit it through them.

Source:
Ibn 'Uthaimin
Fatawa Islamiyah, Vol. 5 Page 186