Kitab an-Nikah and Kitab al-Janaiz

The chapter on marriage (Kitab an-Nikah) in Bulugh al-Maram covers one of the most practically important areas of Islamic legal life, touching the foundational institution of family through the lens of the Prophetic tradition. Ibn Hajar approaches the subject with his characteristic precision, selecting the hadiths that establish the conditions, pillars, and rulings of the marriage contract while noting briefly where scholars have drawn different conclusions from the available evidence.

The chapter opens with the hadith of the Prophet urging young men capable of marriage to pursue it, as it protects the eyesight and the private parts, and urging fasting upon those who cannot yet afford it. This narration, transmitted by Ibn Mas'ud in Bukhari and Muslim, is graded without comment as sahih and sets the tone for a chapter that treats marriage as both a legal obligation under certain circumstances and a strongly encouraged Sunnah. The sections that follow cover the requirements for a valid marriage contract: the guardian (wali), the two witnesses, the offer and acceptance, and the dowry (mahr).

The wali hadiths generate some of the book's most careful grading notes. The hadith 'there is no marriage without a guardian' is cited from multiple chains, and Ibn Hajar notes the scholarly disagreement about its precise chain quality — the Hanafi school has historically been more flexible on this requirement, while the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools hold it as an absolute condition. Ibn Hajar does not adjudicate, but his grading of the relevant hadiths as either sound or 'has something in its chain' (fi isnadihi maqal) makes clear which narrations bear on the debate.

The mahr (dowry) section includes the remarkable hadith in which the Prophet told a man who had no material wealth to give as dowry to teach his wife some Quran instead, which he accepted as a valid mahr. This narration is discussed across the schools as a basis for understanding how broadly the mahr concept can extend. Ibn Hajar grades it as sound and notes the different readings scholars have given it.

The chapter on funerary rites (Kitab al-Janaiz) is among the most moving sections of Bulugh al-Maram, covering the Islamic approach to death from the moment a person begins to die through burial and the period of condolence. The hadiths on closing the eyes of the deceased, washing the body, shrouding, the funeral prayer, carrying the bier quickly, burial, and the behavior at the grave are all cited with their chains and gradings. The narration in which the Prophet stands for a passing funeral bier and then, when told it was Jewish, affirms that a human soul is still a human soul — is cited in this chapter as a basis for the ruling on standing for funeral processions. Ibn Hajar grades it as sound and notes its use across the schools. The section on visiting graves, including the permissibility of saying specific supplications for the deceased, provides the hadith basis for a practice that has been debated extensively in Islamic scholarship.