Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1104

Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.

Qutaybah narrated to us: Ghundar—Muhammad ibn Ja'far—narrated to us, from Sa'id ibn Abi Arubah, with a similar report, but he did not raise it to the Prophet. This is more correct. Abu Isa said: This hadith is not preserved; we know of no one who raised it to the Prophet except in the report narrated from Abd al-A'la, from Sa'id, from Qatadah. It has also been narrated from Abd al-A'la, from Sa'id, as a report stopping at a Companion. The sound version is what is narrated from Ibn Abbas as his own statement: There is no marriage without clear evidence. This is how the companions of Qatadah narrated it, from Qatadah, from Jabir ibn Zayd, from Ibn Abbas: There is no marriage without clear evidence. More than one person also narrated something similar from Sa'id ibn Abi Arubah as a report stopping at a Companion. It is also reported in this chapter from Imran ibn Husayn, Anas, and Abu Hurairah.

The scholars among the Companions of the Prophet, the Successors who came after them, and others acted on this, saying: There is no marriage without witnesses. Those who came before did not differ on this, except for a group of later scholars. The scholars differed only about the case where one witness testifies and then another later. Most scholars of Kufa and elsewhere said that the marriage is not valid until both witnesses are present together at the marriage contract. Some scholars of Medina held that if the witnesses testify one after another, it is valid so long as the marriage is publicly announced. This was the view of Malik ibn Anas and others. Ishaq related this as the position of the people of Medina. Some scholars said that the testimony of one man and two women is valid for marriage. This was the view of Ahmad and Ishaq.