She becomes lawful for him if she marries another man in a valid marriage—a marriage genuinely desired—and he consummates the marriage with her. Consummation is essential: without intercourse, she does not become lawful for the first husband. Thus, even if she remained with the second husband for ten years and he did not have intercourse with her, she would not become lawful for the first husband. The evidence is the Prophet’s saying, peace and blessings be upon him, to the wife of Rifāʿah al-Quraẓī: “Do you wish to return to Rifāʿah? No—not until you have tasted his sweetness and he has tasted your sweetness.” The wisdom behind this is that, if the second husband has intercourse with her, he may come to desire her, for intercourse brings about affection between spouses.

Or if he says: “I have married her to you when the beginning of the month arrives,” or, “if her mother approves,” or, “when tomorrow comes, divorce her,” or if he stipulates a fixed term for it, all of it is invalid.

His statement, “Or if he says: ‘I have married her to you when the beginning of the month arrives,’ or, ‘if her mother approves,’ or, ‘when tomorrow comes, divorce her,’ or if he stipulates a fixed term for it, all of it is invalid,” refers to a conditional marriage contract. The author mentions four forms of it:

The first is: “when the beginning of the month arrives.” This is a purely conditional stipulation.

The second is: “if her mother approves.” This makes it conditional upon the action of another person.

The third is making divorce conditional.

The fourth is stipulating a fixed term for it—that is, setting a term for the marriage.

The first case is where he says: “I have married her to you when the beginning of the month arrives.” This is a purely conditional stipulation. Is the marriage valid or not? The author says that it is invalid, because the contract must be concluded immediately and unconditionally; it is therefore invalid when made conditional.

Regarding his words, “the beginning of the month”: does this mean its beginning or its end? It is commonly understood that “the beginning of the month” and “the beginning of the year” mean their end. Thus, if he says, “I have married her to you when the beginning of the month arrives,” meaning its end, and the man replies, “I accept,” the marriage is invalid because it is a marriage made conditional upon a condition. Once it is conditional upon a condition and he accepts, his acceptance takes place before the offer, since the offer is effective only at the end of the month; therefore, if he accepts now, it is invalid.

This is the well-known position of the madhhab in this issue and others: that all contracts, apart from appointments to authority, agency agreements, and similar matters, are not valid