Spouses' rights, and marriages that do not hold
What a marriage contract owes each spouse, and the situations elsewhere in this section where a nikah is invalid or left pending.
Marriage gives each person things they are owed. A husband owes his wife the mahr, and must support her and treat her kindly. This is why Islam is strict about someone marrying who cannot actually do these things, or who would be unkind to a wife.
If people do not follow the rules for a proper nikah (for example, if there are no witnesses, or the marriage is only "done" by an action instead of real words, or someone tries to marry a person they already cannot marry), the marriage simply does not count, however it looks to the people involved.
A nikah is not only a ceremony; it creates obligations. The husband owes his wife the mahr, her maintenance, and kind treatment: these are serious enough that the source ties the very ruling on whether someone should marry to whether he can actually deliver them, treating a real fear of failing to do so as makruh and a certainty of it as haram. Mahr functions as a debt on the husband from the moment of the contract, and is best settled as promptly as possible rather than left indefinitely. After the wedding night, it is sunnah for the husband to host a walimah to the best of his ability.
Not every attempted marriage takes effect. Scattered through this section are situations where a nikah either fails outright or is left pending rather than settled one way or the other. Gathering them together:
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| The offer and acceptance were carried out by action, not by speech (ta'ati) | The marriage is not valid at all |
| The nikah was contracted with a fixed end date (mut'ah or mouqqat) | Not valid; mut'ah is categorically forbidden |
| No two qualifying witnesses were present, or they did not hear the offer and acceptance together | Not valid |
| The woman is within a prohibited degree (mahram), by lineage, fosterage or affinity | Not valid |
| A Muslim woman marries a non-Muslim man, or anyone marries an idol-worshipper who has not embraced Islam | Not valid |
| A man marries a woman already married to someone else, or observing her waiting period | Not valid |
| Two sisters, or a woman and her aunt, are married to the same man at the same time | Both marriages are invalid |
| The same combination happens one after another rather than together | The first marriage stays valid; the second is invalid |
| A man takes a fifth wife while four marriages already stand (or a third, for a slave with two) | The extra marriage is invalid |
| An insane person or a minor contracts their own marriage without a guardian | Not automatically valid or void: it waits on the guardian's approval |
| Someone with no authority at all (a faduli) conducts a marriage for two other people | It waits on those two people's own approval once informed |
| A guardian other than a father or grandfather marries off a mature woman without her knowledge | It waits on her own consent once she learns of it |
The source does not use a single technical vocabulary for these outcomes in the passages this section draws on; they are grouped here by their practical effect rather than asserted to form one formal classification.
Nikah is not merely a ceremony but the source of huquq (rights) each spouse can claim from the other. The husband owes his wife mahr, nafaqah, and kind treatment (husn al-mu'asharah): obligations serious enough that the very level of encouragement toward marrying turns on the man's confidence in discharging them, a genuine fear of failing being makruh tahrimi and a certainty of it being haram. Mahr operates as a dayn on the husband from the moment of the ʿaqd, better discharged promptly than left to custom's usual deferral to death or divorce. Following consummation (zafaf), hosting a walimah to one's means is sunnah.
Across the passages this section is built from, several situations recur where a nikah does not simply take legal effect one way or the other: either failing outright, or remaining mawquf (suspended) pending a further act of will. The source does not, within the passages covered here, set these out as a single formal taxonomy of sahih/fasid/batil/mawquf; the table below gathers them by their stated practical effect rather than asserting a classification the source itself does not draw in this span.
| Situation | Effect |
|---|---|
| Ijab wa qubul carried out by taʿāṭī (action) rather than speech | Invalid outright |
| The contract is muʾaqqat, bound to a fixed term (mutʿah or mouqqat) | Invalid outright; mutʿah is categorically ḥarām |
| No two qualifying shuhūd were present, or they did not hear ijab and qubul jointly | Invalid outright |
| The woman falls within a maḥram degree by qarābah, raḍāʿah, or muṣāharah | Invalid outright |
| A Muslim woman marries a non-Muslim man, or either party marries a polytheist not yet Muslim | Invalid outright |
| A man marries a woman already manqūḥah or in ʿiddah | Invalid outright |
| Two sisters, or a woman and her paternal/maternal aunt, are married to one man simultaneously | Both marriages invalid |
| The same combination arises sequentially rather than simultaneously | The first marriage stands; the second is invalid |
| A fifth wife is taken while four marriages already stand (a third, for a slave with two) | The excess marriage is invalid |
| A majnūn or minor contracts their own nikah absent a walī | Mawqūf, pending the walī's ijāzah |
| A fuḍūlī, holding no authority at all, contracts a nikah between two other parties | Mawqūf, pending their own ijāzah once informed |
| A walī other than the father or grandfather marries off a bāligh woman without her knowledge | Mawqūf, pending her own consent on learning of it |
Related
- The pillar and conditions of a valid nikah Nikah has one pillar, offer and acceptance, and six conditions that must all be met for it to be valid.
- 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.
- Guardianship in marriage Who counts as a wali, in what order they stand, and what a guardian can and cannot decide for someone else.