He has thus used the term marriage without qualification. Accordingly, whatever is customarily called a marriage is a marriage. He did not say, “Marry those women who are lawful for you,” using specifically the term inkāḥ (marrying) or tazwīj (giving in marriage); nor did He say, “Marry them with the permission of their guardians,” using specifically the term inkāḥ or tazwīj. Since He left the wording of the contract unrestricted, we refer in this matter to customary usage.

If we were to say that expressing it by its meaning entails being bound to the precise wording, we would likewise have to say that a sale can only be concluded using the word “sale,” because Allah says:

“Allah has permitted trade.” [al-Baqarah 2:275]

Thus, whenever Allah mentioned something using a particular term, we would have to say that this very term is indispensable. Yet they maintain that a sale is concluded by anything customarily understood to indicate it, even by an exchange of goods and payment without verbal formulae.

Evidence from the sunnah is that the Prophet ﷺ emancipated Safiyyah and made her emancipation her bridal gift (1).

When they recognized this as evidence, they said: This case is an exception. Thus, they said: The wording must be inkāḥ or tazwīj, except where a man emancipates his slave-woman and makes her emancipation her bridal gift.

Another proof from the sunnah is the account of the woman who offered herself to the Prophet ﷺ. It is authentically established in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (2) that the Prophet ﷺ said, “I have given her to you in possession on account of what you have of the Quran.” This is explicit wording. They replied that most narrations state: “I have married her to you on account of what you have of the Quran” (3).