If the marriage is annulled before consummation, the defective wife is entitled to neither the dowry nor a consolation gift, whether the annulment is sought by him or by her. Should she initiate the annulment, the separation stems from her side; if he initiates it, he does so only because of the defect she concealed from him. If, however, the annulment takes place after consummation or a legally valid seclusion, she is entitled to the full dowry, for it became binding through consummation. The husband may then recover that amount from whoever misled him—be it a competent wife, a guardian, or an agent.

The two hadiths mention three specific defects: vitiligo, leprosy, and insanity.

The majority of scholars limit marital defects to two broad categories:
a. Defects that prevent intercourse. In a man: severance of the penis, removal of the testicles, or impotence (ʿinna). In a woman: an imperforate hymen (ratq), a uterine obstruction (qaran), or ʿafal—a condition that blocks or impedes intercourse.
b. Defects that repel or are contagious: leprosy, vitiligo, insanity, hemorrhoids, fistula, and chronic running sores of the genital area.
Thus, most jurists confine defects in marriage to these two categories, differing only slightly as to whether all or only some of them should be classed as defects.

The Prophet’s phrase “Any man…” is not exclusive to men: if a husband discovers a defect in his wife, he may annul the marriage, and if a wife discovers a defect in her husband, she has the same right.

Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh holds that infertility is a defect, for one of a woman’s foremost aims in marriage is to have children. In this regard, a wife is not on equal footing with a husband, for he can marry another woman while keeping the first.

Ibn al-Qayyim contends that every defect that repels the other spouse and thwarts the objectives of marriage—affection, mercy, and harmony—confers the right of annulment. He argues that this is even more fitting than in sales, where the buyer may rescind the transaction for any flaw that diminishes the value of the goods. Whoever reflects on the aims of the Sharia, its justice, wisdom, and the benefits it secures will recognize the strength of this opinion and its firm grounding in the principles of Islamic law.