Nikah (marriage contract)

Nikah in the language applies both to the marital act and to the contract apart from it; juristically it is the contract from which lawful mutual enjoyment between the spouses results — its precise definition and the word's true reference being matters of juristic disagreement. ¹

For the Hanafis: a contract conferring ownership of licit enjoyment of a woman by intent. For the Malikis: a contract rendering enjoyment of a lawful woman licit, by formula. For the Shafi'is: a contract comprising the licitness of intercourse through the words inkah, tazwij or their translation. For the Hanbalis: the marriage contract in which the word nikah, tazwij or their equivalent is observed. ¹

Three views: nikah properly denotes the act and metaphorically the contract — the sound Hanafi position; properly the contract and metaphorically the act — the preponderant Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali position; or properly both — on a third view differing between homonymy and univocity. ^{1 2}

On the disagreement turns, among other rulings, affinity: one who commits zina with a woman finds her forbidden to his ascendants and descendants for the Hanafis and in the better-known Hanbali view, while the Shafi'is and the relied-upon Maliki position hold that zina establishes no affinity. ³