Islamic Fiqh > Marriage and family > The pillars and conditions of nikah
Marriage pillars per the schools: the formula, the wali (guardian), the woman and her spouse, the witnesses, and validity conditions.
Nikah rests on pillars according to the schools: offer and acceptance (the formula), the wali (guardian), the woman and her spouse, and the 2 witnesses. The mahr is the woman's right and not a validity condition: unnamed, the mahr al-mithl is due. A marriage without publicity remains valid but is discouraged, the Prophet ordering publicizing marriage with drums and the walima (at-Tirmidhi 1089). Added to these are the validity conditions of nikah, the formula of the marriage contract (the siyaqaha), the religious statuses of the spouses and the conditions of the witnesses.
Updated on 07 October 2026 at 6:42 PM
Minah al-Jalil by al-Dardir · Maliki school
(Chapter) The dowry (sadaq): its definition. The dowry is like the price: like a slave girl she herself would choose, not he.
Chapter of the rulings of the dowry.
Bada'i al-Sana'i by al-Kasani · Hanafi school
...an obligation or a duty at the level of collective responsibility (kifaya). He argued by the commands that came in the chapter of marriage, and the absolute command is (open to) obligation and categorical duty; yet marriage does not bear that in the way of individual determination, for if every individual of the people left it, he would incur no sin. It is therefore interpreted as obligation and duty at the level of collective responsibility: it then resembles jihad, the funeral prayer and the return of the salam.
Offer and acceptance, the wali (guardian) and 2 witnesses; the mahr is the woman's right, not a validity condition: unnamed, the mahr al-mithl is due.
Valid before Allah but discouraged: the Prophet ordered publicizing marriage (drums, walima) to avoid suspicion (at-Tirmidhi 1089).
No: khitba is a promise, not a contract; either party may break before nikah, with courtesy (see the khitba page).