The followingconditions have to be fulfilled for a valid marriage of a manto a woman: 1)Specifying the two partners for marriage, and thus it is not allowedfor a man to say,for instance, “J have married you to one of my daughters” when hehas more thanone; 2) The consent of the husband and wife, the husband being ofmaturity andrightly guided, and the wife being free and of discretion; 3) A guardianfor the woman,since a woman can arrange her own marriage herself and none otherthan a legalguardian cannot arrange her marriage, unless the guardian refuses tomarry her to aperson who is compatible with her. The most appropriate person toarrange hermarriage is her father, then grandfather and so on upward, or her sonand grandson andso on downward, or her full brother then her paternal uncle andso forth (and theruler is the guardian for those that have no guardian) (Ahmad and AbuDawud); 4)Witnesses; there must be two male witnesses of maturity, sound mind andintegrity; 5) Thetwo partners are devoid of those traits that disallow marriage, likebeing related bywet nursing, blood or marriage. The traits thatdisallow marriage forever are of various categories:1) Byblood relationship, like : # The mother or the grandmother and so onupward; * Thedaughter or daughter of a son and so on downward; * The sister, orthe daughter of asister or the daughter of her son or daughter, or the daughter of abrother and anyof her daughters or daughters of her sons and daughters and so ondownward; # Maternalor paternal aunt and so on upward;2) By wetnursing, and this prohibition is like that of blood relationship statedabove, even inrespect of marriage;3) By marriage,this being the mother of his wife, the grandmothers, the wives ofhis father, hisgrandfather and so on upward, the wife of his son, grandson and so ondownward, anddaughters of his wife, their daughters and so on downward. The traits thatdisallow marriage temporarily are of two kinds:1) Byreason of combination, like combining two sisters or combining a womanwith her aunt; 2)By reason that may lapse eventually. like the woman being thewife of anotherman at that time. A son ordaughter, although obligated to obey his/her parents at all times inobedience toAllah, does not have to obey his/her parents to marry someone whomthey do not wantto marry. They do not have to obey their command in this andtheirdisobedience here will not be considered grievous disrespect.= Divorce: It isnot allowed for a husband to divorce his wife while she is in hermenses orpostpartum bleeding, after having intercourse with her during the time ofpurity betweentwo menstrual periods. Although it is not allowed to divorce duringthese times, ifone does, it 1s considered valid. Divorce is adisliked act if done without valid reason, but it is allowed if needed. Divorce is aSunnah for the person that is harmed by remaining in a destructivemarriage. [t isnot obligatory to obey the parents in the matter of divorce. It is notallowed for theperson that wishes to divorce his wife to do so more than once inone sitting(saying for instance, “I divorce you three times,” or “the number of starsin the sky,” or“the number of grains of sand in the desert,” etc). The pronouncementof divorce must be during a time of purity (not during theperiod of menses)when the husband has not yet had intercourse with his wife. Hethen divorces herthrough one pronouncement of divorce and leaves her until thedeterminedwaiting period (‘Iddah) lapses. For the woman whohas the possibility that her husband may return her into thestate of marriage(Talaag ar-Raj’i), it is prohibited for her to leave her house ofresidence, as itis forbidden for him to remove her before the completion of thedeterminedwaiting period ([ddah). Divorce takesplace by uttering it verbally [or in written form] and it does nottake place bymere intention. @ Oaths (Aimaan):When one swears a solemn oath, expiation for that oath isrequired
