“And Allah has made for you wives of your own race (kind), and has
made for you, from your wives, sons and grandsons, and has bestowed on
you good provision. Do they then believe in false deities and deny the
favour of Allah (by not worshipping Allah alone)”
All praise is
due unto Almighty Allah who created the entire mankind from a single
soul (Prophet Adam), and therefore, created his wife (Hawau) and from
both of them dispersed many men and women. May His abundant blessings
continue to shower on the noblest of mankind-Prophet Muhammad, members
of his household, his companions and his followers till the last hour.
Before
the short interlude, our sermon was focused on the Islamic family unit,
its establishment and maintenance. The interlude became necessary as a
result of the urgent need to briefly remind us of the pre-requisites of
the fifth pillar of Islam – Hajj and the subsequent eidul-Adh-hiyah.
Now, we have to continue with our discussion on the issue of marriage.
A
glimpse into the Muslim family structure today reveals that what seems
unimportant in the view of most nonchalant Muslims, especially young
couples, form the foundation of the family they want to establish.
The
first condition to be established before others is “proposal and
acceptance” (Al-Ijab wal-Qabûl). It is clear that the Glorious Qur’an
describes marriage as a solemn covenant between the parties; male and
female. Before a marriage is contracted, there must be a direct,
unequivocal proposal followed by a corresponding acceptance thereof.
Both proposal and acceptance must be explicit, not ambiguous.
The
Islamic Shari’ah wants the suitor to physically know the lady in
question by ordinarily seeing her face and vice versa. The contracting
woman must be free from all marital bounds and must also not be coerced
into the relationship. As earlier discussed, the woman or lady should be
interested in the relationship and understand the terms of the contract
so that she’d not ignorantly accept and abruptly terminate it.
Strictly
attached to this condition is that if the contracting man is married or
not he must be a Muslim and if already married, his present wife must
not in any way be related to the prospective bride in any degree that
forbids him from maintaining the two contemporaneously.
Having
fulfilled this first condition, the second condition is that of marriage
dower or dowry. This is usually referred to as As-sodâq or Mâhr. It is
called marriage-gift or marriage endowment. The importance of this
condition has been explained in the word of Almighty Allah, “And give to
the woman (whom you married) their Mâhr (obligatory bridal money) with a
good heart, but if they, of their own good pleasure, remit any part of
it back to you, then take it, and enjoy it without fear of any harm.”
It
was related that a woman to the Holy Prophet (SAW) seeking his hand in
marriage, when it became clear that the Holy Prophet (SAW) had no
interest in the woman, one of the companions stood up asking the
Prophet’s permission to marry the woman. On the acceptance of the man’s
proposal by the woman, the Holy Prophet (SAW) asked the man what he had
in possession to give the woman as Mâhr; the man claimed not to have
even an ordinary metal ring let alone something worthier.
Written by Abduljaleel Solaudeen
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