those relied upon by the two Shaykhs. Al-Shāfiʿī, in the version he transmits, combines the two reports under this single chain.
Al-Athram relates from Aḥmad: “This ḥadith is not authentic, yet practice is based upon it.”
Al-Albānī comments: “Taken as a whole, the report is sound through its multiple routes from Sālim on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar. It was authenticated by Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, al-Bayhaqī, and Ibn al-Qaṭṭān, and other narrations bear the same meaning.”
Lessons drawn from the ḥadith
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The report shows that the maximum number of wives a free man may gather at one time is four. The Almighty says: “Then marry whichever women please you—two, three, or four” (Qur’an 4:3). Al-Shawkānī explains that the verse is proof of the prohibition of taking more than four wives; it addresses the whole community and leaves every suitor free to choose any number within that limit.
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It follows that if a man from a community permitting more than four wives embraces Islam, he is instructed to keep only four and divorce the rest, for four is the upper limit for a free Muslim male.
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The ḥadith affirms the validity of marriages contracted by non-Muslims: they remain in force without investigating the precise form in which they were concluded during disbelief. This applies when, at the moment of their acceptance of Islam or when they litigate before us, those unions are inherently lawful. If, however, at that moment the marriage would be impermissible to initiate—such as a union with a maḥram or with a woman still in her ʿiddah—then the couple must be separated, for whatever bars the initiation of a contract likewise bars its continuation, as has been discussed.
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The proof that their marriages are upheld upon Islam—or upon litigation subject to the above condition—is that converts are not required to contract a new marriage, while they are ordered to divorce whichever wives they do not choose. This demonstrates that the original contract is deemed valid.