The Definition of Nikah, Its Purpose and Its Procedure

Question

(1) What is called nikah, what are its purposes, and what is its ultimate aim? (2) What is the basis of nikah? And how and in what way can it take place? That is, what is the ruling for a nikah to have taken place? What is its form? (3) Is a witness a condition in nikah or not? And how many witnesses are a condition? Can a nikah take place with the testimony of women too? (4) Is it a condition in nikah that the woman have an agent (wakil)? One, or two, or even more than that? (5)

Answer

(1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8) Nikah is a contract (‘aqd) through which the man obtains the right of intercourse with the woman, and its consequences follow from it: for the woman, mahr, maintenance (nafaqa) and housing (sukna), and also, when children are born, the establishment of lineage (nasab), and so on. If the woman is adult (baligha)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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