“And marry off the single ones among you” (al-Nūr 24:32), and He also said, “So do not prevent them” (al-Baqarah 2:232), along with other verses that address the guardians.

A woman’s guardian is, in the following order: her father; the executor he appointed for her; then her paternal grandfather, however far up; then her son; then her grandsons, however far down; then her full brother; then her half-brother through her father; then the sons of both of them; then her full paternal uncle; then her paternal uncle through her father only; then the sons of both of them; thereafter the closest male agnate relative according to the laws of inheritance; then the emancipator; and finally the ruler.

The fourth condition is the presence of witnesses to the marriage contract. Jabir reports that the Prophet said, “No marriage is valid without a guardian and two upright witnesses,” so the contract is valid only when two trustworthy witnesses are present.

Al-Tirmidhi stated, “This has been the practice among the scholars—starting with the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, then the Successors, and those who came after them. They all held that no marriage is valid without witnesses, and none of the early generations differed on this point, except for a few later scholars.”