Nikah with Allah and the Messenger Made Witnesses

Question

Zayd took a widow and went far away from his homeland to another place, and on arriving there the widow said to Zayd of her own free will: “I agree to enter into nikah with you for a mahr of 300 rupees.” Zayd, declaring Allah and the Messenger witnesses, accepted the widow for a mahr of 300 rupees (agreed to it). At the time of the nikah there was nobody else apart from these two persons, Zayd and the widow, and the two began to live together as husband and wife. Some time later a child was born to her.

Answer

By contracting a nikah in this way the nikah does not take place. For a nikah to be concluded it is necessary that two men, or one man and two women, hear the offer and acceptance (ijab and qabul) as witnesses in the session of the contract (majlis al-‘aqd). A nikah is not concluded in private.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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