Marriage (Kitab Al-Nikah)

Alqamah said: I was walking with ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿud at Mina when ʿUthman met him and took him aside for a private conversation. When ʿAbd Allah saw that ʿUthman had no further need to speak privately, he said to me, Come, Alqamah, and I came over. ʿUthman said, Abu ʿAbd al-Rahman, shall we marry you to a young virgin, so that some of the vitality you once knew may return to you? ʿAbd Allah replied: If that is what you mean, I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: Those of you who are able to marry should marry, for it is more effective in lowering the gaze and guarding chastity. Whoever is unable should fast, for fasting is a restraint for him.

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: Women are married for four things: their wealth, their family standing, their beauty, and their religion. So seek the religious woman, and may you prosper.

Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked me, Have you married? I said, Yes. He asked, A virgin or a previously married woman? I replied, A previously married woman. He said, Why not a virgin, so that you could play with her and she with you?

Abu Dawud said: Husayn ibn Hurayth al-Marwazi wrote to me: al-Fadl ibn Musa related to us, from al-Husayn ibn Waqid, from ʿImarah ibn Abi Hafsah, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbas, who said: A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, My wife does not turn away a man who reaches out to touch her. He said, Send her away. The man said, I fear that my heart will remain attached to her. He said, Then continue to enjoy her.

Maʿqil ibn Yasar said: A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, I have found a woman of noble family and beauty, but she is infertile. Shall I marry her? He said, No. The man came to him a second time, and he forbade him. He came a third time, and the Prophet ﷺ said: Marry loving, fertile women, for I shall take pride in your great numbers among the peoples.

ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb reported from his father, from his grandfather, that Marthad ibn Abi Marthad al-Ghanawi used to transport prisoners from Mecca. In Mecca there was a prostitute named ʿInaq, with whom he had been involved. He said: I came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked, Messenger of Allah, may I marry ʿInaq? He gave me no answer. Then the verse was revealed: The adulteress is married by none but an adulterer or an idolater. He summoned me, recited it to me, and said: Do not marry her.

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: A convicted adulterer should marry only someone like himself. Abu Maʿmar added: Habib al-Muʿallim related this to me from ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb.

Abu Musa reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Whoever frees his enslaved woman and then marries her will have a double reward.

Anas ibn Malik reported that the Prophet ﷺ freed Safiyyah and made her emancipation her bridal gift.

ʿAishah, Mother of the Believers, reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: The relations prohibited through breastfeeding are the same as those prohibited through birth.

Umm Habibah asked the Prophet ﷺ: Messenger of Allah, would you consider marrying my sister? He asked, What would I do with her? She said, You could marry her. He asked, Your sister? She said, Yes. He asked whether she would like that. She replied that she was not the only wife with him and that she would love for her sister to share in this good. He said that her sister was not lawful for him. Umm Habibah said she had heard that he was proposing to Durrah, daughter of Umm Salamah. He asked, The daughter of Umm Salamah? She said yes. He said: Even if she had not been my stepdaughter in my care, she would still not be lawful for me, for she is my niece through breastfeeding. Thuwaybah breastfed both me and her father. So do not offer me your daughters or your sisters.

ʿAishah said that Aflah ibn Abi al-Quʿays came to her, so she veiled herself from him. He said, Are you veiling yourself from me when I am your paternal uncle? She asked how that could be. He replied, My brother wife breastfed you. She said, The woman breastfed me; the man did not. Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came in, and she told him what had happened. He said: He is your paternal uncle, so let him come in to see you.

ʿAishah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to her while a man was with her. According to Hafs version, this displeased him and his face changed. She said, Messenger of Allah, he is my brother through breastfeeding. He said: Be sure who your foster brothers are, for breastfeeding that establishes kinship is that which satisfies hunger.

Ibn Masʿud said: Fosterage is established only by breastfeeding that strengthens the bones and causes flesh to grow. Abu Musa said: Do not ask us while this learned man is among you.

This report is also narrated from Ibn Masʿud, through another chain, with the same meaning from the Prophet ﷺ. This version says anshaza al-ʿazm, meaning that the breastfeeding nourishes the bones and makes them strong.

ʿAishah and Umm Salamah reported: Abu Hudhayfah had adopted Salim as his son and married him to his niece Hind, daughter of al-Walid. Salim was the freedman of an Ansari woman. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had also adopted Zayd. In pre-Islamic times an adopted son was called after his adopter and inherited from him. Then Allah revealed the command to call adopted sons by their fathers names, and that those whose fathers were unknown were to be regarded as brothers in religion and allies. Sahlah bint Suhayl, Abu Hudhayfah wife, came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: We considered Salim a son; he lived with us in one house and saw me dressed informally. Allah has revealed what you know about adoption, so what do you advise? He told her to breastfeed him. She breastfed him five times, and he became her foster son. For this reason, ʿAishah used to tell her nieces to breastfeed five times any adult whom she wished to visit her. Umm Salamah and the other wives of the Prophet ﷺ refused to admit anyone on the basis of such breastfeeding unless the person had been breastfed in infancy. They told ʿAishah: By Allah, we do not know; perhaps this was a concession the Prophet ﷺ granted to Salim alone.

ʿAishah said: Among what Allah revealed in the Quran was that ten known sucklings establish the prohibition of marriage; this was then abrogated by five known sucklings. The Prophet ﷺ died while this was still among what was recited from the Quran.

ʿAishah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: One or two sucklings do not establish the prohibition of marriage.

Hajjaj ibn Malik al-Aslami asked: Messenger of Allah, what will discharge my responsibility for a foster child? He replied: A male or female slave. Al-Nufayli identified the narrator as Hajjaj ibn Hajjaj al-Aslami and said these were his exact words.