and the specific meaning of those two expressions in whatever language a person speaks is sufficient for the contract. If the acceptance is deferred (1) it nevertheless remains valid (2) so long as both parties are still in the same meeting and have not turned to something that, by common usage, ends the session (3); it is not valid, however, if the acceptance is voiced before the offer.

Section: The Conditions of the Marriage Contract

Its conditions are:

1. Clear identification of the two spouses—whether by name, by a descriptive attribute, or by physical indication. The contract is likewise valid if he says, “I marry you to my daughter,” when he has no other daughter; it is not valid if he says, “I marry you to Fāṭimah,” without adding, “my daughter.”

2. Their consent, or the consent of whoever lawfully represents them. A father may compel a virgin—even if she is an adult—as well as an insane woman, an insane man, a feeble-minded person, a minor, and a master may compel his slave-woman (4) who is not in a mukātaba contract and his minor slave-boy; the same authority belongs to his testamentary guardian in matters of marriage.

No other guardian may, under any circumstances, marry off a girl younger than nine, a minor boy, an adult sane woman, or a nine-year-old girl except with their permission; a virgin’s permission is her silence, whereas a previously married woman must give verbal consent.

3. A guardian. A woman may neither contract marriage for herself nor for anyone else. Her father has first claim to this role, then the executor he has appointed for it, then her paternal grandfather, however high, then her son, then his son in descending order, then her full brother, then her half-brother on the father’s side, then their sons in the same order, after that the nearest agnate relative, then the patron who manumitted her, followed by his agnates in the order in which they would inherit, then the ruler, and finally the village headman (5) or one of his equivalents.