SEC. 3 — FORM AND VALIDITY OF MARRIAGE

Preliminaries of marriage

The very fact that marriage is looked upon as a contract in Islām, shows that before marriage both parties must satisfy themselves that each will have a desirable partner for life in the other. The Holy Qur’ān lays down expressly: “Marry such women as seem good to you (mā ṭāba la-kum)” (4:3). The Holy Prophet is reported to have given an injunction to this effect: “When one of you makes a proposal of marriage to a woman, then if he can, he should look at what attracts him to marry her” (AD. 12:18), the heading of this chapter being: “A man should look at the woman whom he intends to marry.” Bukhārī also has a chapter, headed “To look at the woman before marriage” (Bu. 67:36). Muslim has a similar chapter: “Inviting a man who intends to marry a woman to have a look at her face and hands” (M. 16:12). In this chapter is cited the case of a man who came to the Holy Prophet and said that he was marrying a woman from among the Anṣār, and the Holy Prophet said to him. Hast thou looked at her? On his replying in the negative, the Holy Prophet said, Then go and look at her, for there is a defect in the eyes of (some) Anṣār. In another ḥadīth, it is reported that when Mughīrā ibn Shu‘ba made a proposal of marriage to a woman, the Holy Prophet asked him if he had seen her and on his replying in the negative, he enjoined him to see her, because “it was likely to bring about greater love and concord between them” (MM. 13:2-ii). The jurists are almost all agreed upon the istīḥbāb (approval) of looking at the woman whom one intends to marry. And since the contract is effected by the consent of two parties, the man and the woman, and one of them is expressly told to satisfy himself about the other by looking at her, it would seem that the woman has the same right to satisfy herself before giving her assent. The consent of both the man and the woman is an essential of marriage, and the Holy Qur’ān lays down expressly that the two must agree: “Prevent them not from marrying their husbands when they agree among themselves in a lawful manner” (2:232). In this respect, however, much will depend upon the customs prevailing among a people. Aḥmad Shukrī, quoting an earlier authority (‘Abd al-Qādir,