Marriage under Muslim Law

Marriage under Muslim law sometimes also known as the Nikah  under which the boy and girl tried with the relationship to live together legally.  After that they have the absolute right to Procreation of a child and that child would be a legitimate child. It is a Civil practice as well as a religious practice which is also considered as a sunnah of prophets under the Islamic law. 

Under the Islamic law it is considered as a bad practice to be involved in a sexual relationship without marriage. That is known as zina. In order to prevent these relationships our elders decided to perform marriage as adults.

When two people get married the responsibility that obligations come into existence by implied or mutual agreement. The bride and groom come into obligation to take care of each other and provide necessary things to his wife and children. The wife getting Meher or dower under this marriage of Islam and it is one of the compulsory practices of Nikah. 

It is kind of a contract and to validate this the parties have to comply with the formalities late down by the Muslim law.  At the end, when Nikaah has been performed the both parties come into a marital status and become husband and wife. 

Essential Conditions under Muslim Marriage

There are some conditions which have to be performed in order to complete the marriage. These conditions are given below:

Offer and Acceptance:-

As we all know that under the Muslim law marriage is like a contract which is constituted by Ijab-o-Qabul. It means a declaration or acceptance. One party of the marriage offers (make a proposal) and the other party must accept the offer in order to complete the Nikah.

The word which makes a proposal and acceptance must be said in the presence of both the parties or in the presence of the agent. 

Under the Sunni law  at the time of the marriage the presence of two males or one male and two females witnesses or compulsory which has to be  adult, Muslims and not to be insane.

 Where under the Shia law the witnesses are not compulsory while performing the marriage.

Free Consent:-

The consent of both the parties should not be taken by any fraud, undue influence and fear (coercion). The both bride and groom contracted into a marriage with their free will and consent . The consent of the parties can be expressed or implied.

Competency of the Parties:-

To complete the above conditions it is mandatory to have competent parties to give their free consent without any fear or undue influence. The competency of the parties can be check by determining some of the factors which are given below: 

Age of marriage:-

Parties must be adults which have a capacity to enter into a contract.  according to Section 3 of Indian majority act which defines the majority age as 18 years.  In other words the parties must attend the age of puberty in order to enter into a contract of management.   Additionally,  the party must be aware of the nature and the consequences of the marriage.

Puberty:-

Puberty is also the factor which has been checked before getting into marriage.  It is important to get married after the age of puberty.  It means the age of a boy or girl on which they became capable of bearing a child. In the absence of the evidence the age of favourite is presumed after the age of 15 years.

Not be insane:-

It is important  for both parties to have a sane person. If any of the party  or insane then It is difficult to get free will and consent of that person. In this situation the guardian of  that person will give  the consent on the behalf of the party.

Dower:-

It is also known as Mehr in muslim law which is a sum of money paid by a husband to his wife as an act of respect towards her. It is compulsory to give mehr  to validate the marriage. 

Marriage while Iddat Period

Under the Muslim Law in that period is the time of 3 months or three  menstrual cycles of women after the ending of the marriage. Termination of marriage can be done by divorce or death of the party. So when the husband dies the  widow comes under the obligation to perform the iddat period. 

The exception is that if the marriage was not consummated there is no need to follow the iddat period. Under the sunni law the marriage is considered as irregular during the iddat period whereas in shia law the marriage becomes void under this period.