Islamic Fiqh > Marriage and family > Khiyar: the option for defect between the spouses
The option for defect: the defects retained by each school (the thirteen Maliki ones, the Hanafi, Shafii and Hanbali lists), Ibn Taymiyya's widening, the separation procedure and the fate of mahr.
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Updated on 25 September 2026 at 3:23 PM
Khiyar al-'ayb, the option of annulment for defect, allows either spouse to seek the annulment (faskh) of the marriage upon discovering in the other a defect that grounds such a request. The jurists of the four schools agree on the principle of the option for defect and differ on its details: which defects establish it, whether the defect must be pre-existing, whether the petitioner must himself be free of defects, whether the resulting separation is a divorce or an annulment, and which mahr is then due. The following leaves lay out these positions with their classical references.