Marriage & Family
The marriage contract (nikah), guardianship, and the rulings of divorce (talaq).
Marriage (Nikah)
- What marriage (nikah) is, and its ruling What the marriage contract (nikah) is in Islamic law, and how whether a person should marry now depends on how strongly they need to.
- The pillar and conditions of a valid marriage (nikah) Marriage (nikah) has one pillar, offer and acceptance, and six conditions that must all be met for it to be valid.
- The rules of offer and acceptance The wording, timing and setting that a proposal and its acceptance must satisfy for a marriage (nikah) to be valid.
- The witnesses to a marriage (nikah) A marriage (nikah) needs two qualifying witnesses who hear the whole offer and acceptance together, or it is not valid.
- Guardianship in marriage Who counts as a guardian (wali), in what order they stand, and what a guardian can and cannot decide for someone else.
- Suitability (kafa'ah) between husband and wife Suitability (kafa'ah) is whether a husband matches his wife's family in six respects, and what her guardians may do if he does not.
- The dower (mahr) The dower (mahr) is the property a husband owes his wife because of the marriage contract, with a set minimum and no upper limit.
- Who you cannot marry: blood relations and in-laws The blood relations and in-laws a Muslim can never marry, and how an in-law relationship comes to be prohibited.
- Who you cannot marry: fosterage (breastfeeding) Breastfeeding within the first two years creates a family bond that prohibits marriage in the same way blood kinship does.
- Who you cannot marry: the other causes Beyond family and fosterage, marriage is also barred by combining certain women, by ownership, by religion, and by an existing marriage or waiting period.
- Marriage of the insane and of minors Why an insane person or a child cannot contract their own marriage, and the right a minor gets back once grown.
- The marriage sermon (khutbat an-nikah) The sermon recommended before the offer and acceptance of marriage (nikah), given here in the two forms the source records.
- How a marriage (nikah) is conducted The recommended order of a marriage (nikah) gathering, the words actually spoken for offer and acceptance, and what follows the marriage.
- Spouses' rights, and marriages that do not hold What a marriage contract owes each spouse, and the situations elsewhere in this section where a marriage (nikah) is invalid or left pending.
Divorce (Talaq)
- What divorce (talaq) is, and when it is allowed What divorce (talaq) means, why Islam values the marriage bond and dislikes divorce, and the five rulings a divorce can carry depending on the circumstances.
- Who may pronounce a divorce, and what makes it valid The four conditions a divorce needs to be valid, the states that do not stop it taking effect, and how it can be given by writing or through a representative.
- The words that effect a divorce: explicit and allusive The difference between words that always mean divorce and words that only sometimes do, and when intention or circumstance decides which divorce, if any, occurs.
- The kinds of divorce: best (ahsan), good (hasan), and innovated (bid'ah) The prescribed (sunnah) methods of giving divorce, best (ahsan) and good (hasan), set against the innovated (bid'ah) methods that go against them.
- Revocable and irrevocable divorce, and divorce before consummation The difference between a divorce the husband can take back and one he cannot, the two degrees of irrevocable divorce, and how many divorces count for a wife who was never consummated.
- Taking the wife back during her waiting period (ruju') How a husband may take his wife back after a revocable divorce, while her waiting period is still running, without a new marriage contract.
- The wife's release in exchange for compensation (khul') How release by agreement (khul') works when a husband will not divorce and the marriage cannot continue, who may ask for it, and what it costs the wife.
- The oath not to approach one's wife (ila') What the oath of abstention (ila') is, what happens if the husband keeps or breaks his oath, and the expiation due for breaking it.
- Likening a wife to one's mother (zihar), and the oath of accusation (li'an) Likening a wife to one's mother (zihar), where a husband compares his wife to a woman he could never marry, and the oath of accusation (li'an), the mutual oaths that follow an unproven charge of adultery.
- The waiting period (iddah) after divorce or death Why a wife must wait before remarrying, and how long the wait is for a divorced, widowed, pregnant, or never-consummated wife.
- Custody of children and maintenance after divorce Who has the right to care for young children after a divorce, and when a husband must keep providing his wife's food, clothing, and housing.
- Further rulings connected to marriage and divorce A missing husband, apostasy, words of disbelief, a new Muslim's existing marriage, a minor girl's engagement, and the limit on marrying more than one wife.