Nikah according to the Sunnah

"Nikah" is the Arabic word for the marriage contract. It is the word used when people speak of "doing their nikah": it refers neither to a ceremony nor to a celebration, but to the act by which the marriage is concluded. "'Aqd" says the same thing more literally still, since the word means contract.

"Zawaj" refers to the marriage itself, the union and the shared life that follow from it. Both terms circulate together among English speakers, often one for the other, and many keep the Arabic word as it is rather than translating it.

This page uses "nikah" in the sense of the contract. Vocabulary varies with regions and families; what follows is not about words but about the contract itself, point by point, each one reported as Shaykh Ibn Baz formulated it, with its Arabic text and the link to the fatwa.

The Shaykh names four presences, and the legislated marriage is the one that brings them together: the wali, the husband and the two witnesses. This is not the description of a desirable custom, it is the description of the contract itself.

The same fatwa distributes the roles. The husband is the one with the need. The wali marries and pronounces the formula: I have given you in marriage so-and-so, daughter of so-and-so. The husband answers: I accept. And the two witnesses testify to it. So it is the wali who concludes, on the woman's side.

The enumeration is to be read as it stands: the woman is not named among the four, her wali is, and it is he who pronounces the contract for her. What the list rules out is a contract made between two people alone. Four people, not two. The rest of the page takes each point in the fatwas' order: the wali, consent, the dowry, the announcement, then the contract that is missing something.

The wali is not a role that is handed out. The fatwa defines him: he is the nearest of the woman's agnates, that is, of her relatives through the male line. And it gives the list, in order.

The father first. Then the grandfather and the ascendants among the men. Then her son, then her son's son and the descendants. Then her full brother, then her paternal half-brother. Then the rest of the agnates, from the nearest to the furthest.

The order has a direct consequence: the question "who is the wali?" has an answer, and that answer depends neither on anyone's preference nor on family custom. It is read off the list.

The fatwa draws no distinction between cases: no one is permitted to compel his daughter, whether she has already been married or is a virgin. Both situations are named, and compulsion is ruled out for the one as for the other.

In its place, two acts fall to him: to ask their permission, and to consult them about themselves. The wording is that of an obligation, not of advice. A father who has not asked the question has not done what is required of him.

The same fatwa reports in support, from the two Sahih, the words of the Prophet ﷺ: the virgin is not married until her permission is asked, and the woman previously married until her view is sought. And he said: let her stay silent, for the virgin's permission is her silence.

The wording is precise, and it often comes as a surprise: the dowry is not one of the pillars of marriage, nor one of its conditions, but it is indispensable. Three statements in a single sentence, and the third does not fade behind the first two.

The same fatwa gives the consequence: a man who marries without a dowry has not concluded a void marriage. The marriage is valid, and the dowry of her peers is then owed to the wife. Leaving it unnamed in the contract does not cancel it, it leaves it to be determined.

Two things hold together: the dowry cannot be treated as optional, since it is indispensable; and a contract in which it was not named cannot be declared void, since the fatwa calls it valid.

The term used is that of obligation: making the marriage public is obligatory. The reason is given in the same sentence, and it is plain: so that the marriage is distinguished, and is not fornication.

The means named is the walima: making it public and announcing it by holding a meal. What is asked is that the marriage be known. A contract kept hidden does not meet what this fatwa requires, since it is precisely that distinction which is intended.

The fatwa warns in the same breath: one should not overburden oneself, for that burden may keep people from marrying and may cause young men and young women to remain unmarried. The Sunnah, it says, is not to overburden.

The Shaykh names the case and settles it: what is called customary marriage, namely that she marries herself off without a wali, is not permitted; it is null according to the majority of the people of knowledge. The word is the fatwa's, this page only reports it.

Fatwa no. 12666 says what is missing, fatwa no. 7804 says what to do about it. For what was concluded out of negligence, without the two witnesses or without a wali, it should be renewed: the marriage redone with its legislated conditions, a wali and two witnesses present at the new contract.

One detail matters, and it is often the one people fear: fatwa no. 7804 adds that their children born beforehand are attached to them, on account of the doubt. Lineage is not touched by the irregularity of the contract; it is the contract, and it alone, that has to be taken up again.

A platform concludes no contract and makes no marriage valid. What it can do is avoid organising the opposite of what precedes. That translates into verifiable decisions, not into a statement of intent at the bottom of a page.

As soon as the sister signs up, the wali is identified and given access to the exchange from the first message, without having to create an account. He is not told at the end: he sees the connection while it is happening.

Every message goes past a human moderator before it is delivered, and not by spot check. There are no profile photos, by design. Only one exchange can be open at a time: the process moves towards a decision, or it stops, but it does not multiply.