an offer and an acceptance for each contract. This cannot be conceived where there are two offers and a single acceptance.

If both of them were to say at the same time, “I give you my daughter in marriage,” and he said to the father, “I accept,” and to the other, “I accept,” then there is a difficulty in this case, because both offers occurred simultaneously. Unless the husband says, “I intended to disregard the second offer and to respond to the father’s offer.” In that case, we say that it is valid, and the second offer is rendered meaningless.

In any event, these are hypothetical cases; in reality, their occurrence is exceedingly rare.

“If one of the two is delayed, or [the second contract] takes place during the waiting period of the other, whether it is an irrevocable or revocable divorce, it is invalid, …”

His statement, “If one of the two is delayed,” means one of the two contracts. The valid one is the first. For example, the father says, “I give you my daughter Aisha in marriage,” and he says, “I accept.” Then, during the same sitting, the father says, “I give you my daughter Fatimah in marriage,” and he says, “I accept.” Aisha’s marriage is valid, whereas the second marriage is not valid, because the combination arose only through the second contract. It is therefore the one to which the prohibition applies, and invalidity is confined to it.

His statement, “Or [the second contract] takes place during the waiting period of the other, whether it is an irrevocable or revocable divorce, it is invalid,” means that the later contract is invalid, because it is not lawful to be married to two sisters at once, nor to a woman and her paternal aunt, nor to a woman and her maternal aunt.

Issue: If the two contracts took place and we do not know which came first, what should we do? We say: both must be annulled; we do not say that both are invalid, because we have no basis upon which to declare them invalid. Invalidity applies only when it is established that they took place simultaneously. As matters stand, however, we do not know: they may have taken place simultaneously, or they may have