Chapter on Marriage

Marriage (nikah) in Islam is a solemn covenant and a foundational institution of Muslim society. Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani addresses the conditions, pillars, and essential elements of a valid Islamic marriage according to the Maliki school, one of the most detailed and distinctive schools on this topic.

The Maliki school holds that marriage has five pillars (arkan) without which the contract is null: the wali (marriage guardian), the spouses themselves (a legally eligible bride and groom), the mahr (dower), the sighah (offer and acceptance formula), and witnesses. The absence of any of these pillars renders the marriage void (batil).

The wali — the bride's male guardian — is a requirement for the validity of the marriage according to the Maliki school. This is the well-known Maliki position and distinguishes the school from the Hanafi school, which permits a woman to contract her own marriage. The wali must be a free Muslim male who is the closest paternal relative: father first, then paternal grandfather, then full brother, then paternal half-brother, then paternal uncle, and so on down the agnatic line. A judge (qadi) serves as wali for a woman who has no agnatic guardian. The Maliki school holds that the wali's consent is not merely recommended but obligatory — a marriage contracted without a wali is voidable and should be dissolved if discovered early.

The mahr is the exclusive financial right of the bride, a gift from the groom that the Quran calls a 'gift' (nihlah) — it is not a bride-price paid to the family. There is no minimum or maximum for the mahr in the Maliki school, though there is a disliked minimum of three dirhams below which some scholars say the mahr should not fall. The mahr may be deferred (mu'ajjal) or advanced (mu'ajjal), and both portions may be agreed upon. If the mahr is not mentioned in the contract, the marriage remains valid and the woman is entitled to the 'mahr of equivalence' (mahr al-mithl) — what a woman of comparable standing in her family would receive.

The prohibition of marriage extends to certain categories of women: those prohibited permanently by lineage (mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces), by nursing (milk-mothers and milk-sisters, if the nursing was substantial — the Maliki school requires five or more established feeding sessions that satisfy the infant), and by marriage (mothers-in-law, stepdaughters where the marriage was consummated, daughters-in-law). Additionally, a Muslim man may not simultaneously be married to two sisters, or to a woman and her aunt.

The Maliki school requires announcement (i'lan) of the marriage — making it known to the community — as an essential condition for the validity of the contract, and a walimah (wedding feast) is a confirmed Sunnah that the groom is urged to provide within the first three days after consummation. A secret marriage contracted without witnesses or publicity is a form of adultery in the Maliki view and is not recognized as a valid contract.