Muwatta, Book of Marriage (nikah)

The Book of Marriage (Nikah) is the fourteenth book of the Muwatta in the transmission of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi from Malik ibn Anas, in the edition of Bashshar Awwad Ma'ruf (1997), and it is in the second volume. It occupies pages 27 to 58 of the PDF pagination, and contains 92 numbered texts (1489–1580) in twenty-two chapters. It concerns marriage: the betrothal and permission, the dower, consummation and privacy, those who are forbidden in marriage, slave women and male slaves, chastity, temporary marriage, and the conversion of one of the spouses to Islam. ^{1 2}

• Betrothal and seeking permission (1489–1497): the prohibition on proposing over a brother's proposal; the permission of the guardian, of the virgin and of the previously married woman; and Umar's wish that no one marry without a guardian. ^{1 3}
• Dower and gifts (1498–1506): the hadith of the woman who gave herself in marriage, and the marriage of a man with what he has of the Qur'an as dower; the dower of an insane woman and of a leprous woman, the dower of a minor, and divorce before consummation. ^{3 4}
• Drawing the curtain and the stay with a virgin and a previously married woman (1507–1515): that the dower is due by drawing the curtain; the division of seven nights for a virgin and three for a previously married woman; and the condition not to marry another woman over her. ^{4 5}
• The muhallil, and women who may not be combined (1516–1521): the hadith of the wife of Rifa'a, and the prohibition on combining a woman with her paternal aunt or maternal aunt. ^{5 6}
• Ownership by right hand, slave women and male slaves (1522–1564): what is unlawful of a woman's mother and daughter, the wife's mother, marrying a slave woman over a free woman, chastity, temporary marriage and what was forbidden of it, and the marriage of male slaves. ^{7 8}
• The wedding feast, and the conversion of the spouses (1565–1580): the conversion of Safwan ibn Umayya (may God be pleased with him) and his wife, the conversion of Ikrima and his wife, the wedding feast even if only with a sheep, and the summary of the marriage. ^{9 2}

Malik begins with the sayings of Umar, Ibn Umar and Said ibn al-Musayyab, and then sets out what the people of Medina act upon concerning virgins and previously married women. He mentions disagreement in some questions, such as the disagreement over two sisters from among the women of one's right hand, and gives preference to the sayings of Uthman and Umar. ^{10 5}

The editor records the transmitters from Malik, and quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr on connected and disconnected transmission. In the hadith of the wife of Rifa'a, Ibn Abd al-Barr held it to be disconnected in Yahya's transmission. He notes that the story of Safwan ibn Umayya is not connected by a sound route in his view, although it is well known among the historians. ^{5 9}

Each text of the book has its own record. It gives the highest narrator and the chapter of the text, presents the substance of the report in the museum's wording, and records the editor's takhrij where it is needed. See Marriage for the places where the book's rulings appear. ¹