Cultural aspects in Christian and Islamic religions - unesdoc - Unesco

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The Marriage Contract
Marriage in Islam is a contract based on mutual consent between the two
parties: the husband and wife. A man intending to marry should be certain that
he can be able to fulfill the rights of a wife. The main basis of marriage is the
declaration (tasrih), i.e. that marriage be accepted orally so that the contract be
made by saying: ‘I have accepted the marriage’. The father is the only guardian
(wali) of a girl who has not been married before. Marriage cannot be made
without his consent. The guardianship (wilayah) of the father does not mean
that he should force his daughter into marrying whoever he wants without
her consent and approval. His guardianship is legally annulled in case he
should forbid her to marry a man suitable for her by Shari’ah and by common
convention. The father’s guardianship is also annulled should his daughter
marry for the second time. No relative – cousin, uncle on her mother’s side or
on her father’s side, brother – of the woman can be her guardian other than
her father. The Hanafi School of jurisprudence (madhhab) allows a girl to marry
without her guardian’s approval. Other schools give a judge the right to marry
a girl with the one she has chosen should her guardian give arbitrary refusal.
The man offers his bride a mahr, a gift offered upon marriage. Mahr may be
a mu’akhar (deferred) amount which complicates divorce procedures for the
man. Should he initiate divorce, then the dowry is the wife’s right that the man
must fulfill before divorce, which is why this is called deferred (mu’akhar) mahr.
The time to pay this amount is determined either upon divorce or upon the
death of one of the spouses, and this is called in the contract, the nearer term
(‘aqrab al-‘ajalayn).
Celebrations of the wedding traditionally go on for days. They are held in
the bride’s house for women before the contract is signed. Traditionally, the
wedding ceremony is divided into two parts: one for men and another for
women. In the men’s part, the groom is carried in a procession with drums
and pipes. The bride is carried in a procession from the women’s part to her
groom. She enters the ceremony room with shrill cries of joy. The wedding
ceremony may start with readings from the Koran for blessing then with
Prophetic eulogy (mada’ih). The religious dignitary highlights the spiritual
meaning of marriage emanating from life and optimism, and he clarifies the
relationship between the husband and his wife. When the ceremony is over,
the bridal couple is carried in one last procession to their conjugal home.