Marriage: Its Conditions and Pillars

Marriage (al-nikah) in Islamic law is not merely a civil contract but a solemn covenant (mithaq ghaliz) described in the Quran with the same term used for the covenant of prophethood. Ibn Uthaymin treats the chapter of nikah in al-Sharh al-Mumti' with corresponding seriousness, examining the legal structure of the marriage contract in the Hanbali school while connecting each ruling to its spiritual and social purpose. The Quran declares: "And He has created mates for you from yourselves that you may find tranquility in them, and He has placed between you affection and mercy" (al-Rum 30:21).

The pillars (arkan) of the marriage contract in the Hanbali school are: the offer (ijab), the acceptance (qabul), the wali (marriage guardian), and two witnesses. Ibn Uthaymin explains that the offer and acceptance constitute the verbal form of the contract — they must use words that are unambiguous in meaning and must occur in a single contractual session without separation. The wali is the male guardian of the woman, typically her father, then grandfather, then son, then brother, then uncle, in order of priority. His presence and consent are a condition of the marriage's validity in the Hanbali school.

The requirement of the wali is one of the most rigorously maintained positions of the Hanbali school, and Ibn Uthaymin defends it at length. The evidence is the hadith: "No marriage without a wali." He addresses the view of some scholars who hold that a woman may contract her own marriage without a wali, and responds that the hadith is explicit and the scholarly consensus of the Companions supports the requirement. The wali does not own the woman's decision-making authority entirely, however: if a competent, suitable match is proposed and the wali refuses without a legitimate reason, the case may be brought to the judge, who acts as wali in his place.

The mahr (dowry) is an obligatory financial right that the husband must give to the wife at the time of marriage or as deferred payment. It is not a pillar of the contract — the marriage is valid even without specifying the mahr at contracting — but it is obligatory by the Quran: "And give the women their mahr as a gift" (al-Nisa' 4:4). Ibn Uthaymin explains that there is no minimum or maximum for the mahr in the Sharia — anything of value may serve, including teaching her Quran — but that the Prophet encouraged simplicity and not burdening families with excessive requirements. A mahr that is so small as to be humiliating is disliked but valid.

The conditions for the marriage to be valid include: the absence of any legal impediment to the marriage (such as the couple being within the prohibited degrees of kinship), the parties being identified with certainty, the parties having legal capacity, and the absence of coercion. Ibn Uthaymin discusses the prohibited degrees of marriage — the mahram relationships — with reference to the Quranic verse listing them (al-Nisa' 4:23). He also addresses the conditions of the valid marriage that protect the woman's rights: she must give her consent, she cannot be compelled into a marriage she refuses if she is a non-virgin adult woman, and even for a virgin daughter the most authentic view is that her explicit or implicit consent is required.