He also permits—by extension of his position—the reservation of part of the usufruct in property conveyed as a gift, dower, compensation for a wife’s release from marriage, or settlement in lieu of legal retaliation, and in similar forms of divesting ownership, whether the divestiture occurs by extinguishment, as in emancipation; by a transfer for consideration, as in a sale; or by a transfer without consideration, as in a gift.

Ahmad also permits in marriage all stipulations in which the stipulating party has a legitimate interest, based on the report in the two Sahīh collections that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: “The stipulations most deserving of fulfillment are those by which marital relations became lawful for you.” Those who base their view on this hadith hold that it means stipulations in marriage are more binding than those in sales and leases. This conflicts with the view of those who uphold stipulations in sales but not in marriage. Ahmad therefore permits a woman to limit rights that the husband would otherwise possess under an unrestricted marriage: she may stipulate that she not travel with him or move out of her home. She may also obtain a right beyond those arising under an unrestricted marriage by stipulating that she have him to herself, so that he may neither marry another woman nor take a concubine.

Under an opinion explicitly reported from him and deemed sound by a group of his followers, he also permits either spouse to stipulate that the other possess a desired quality, such as wealth, beauty, or the like, and grants the stipulating spouse the right to annul the marriage if that quality is absent. Indeed, he adopts one of the broadest positions concerning the annulment and automatic dissolution of marriage. He permits it to be annulled because of a defect—as when a man marries another wife despite having agreed to a stipulation that he would not—because of fraudulent misrepresentation, as when a man believed the woman to be free but she proved to be a slave, and, according to the sound view, because a stipulated attribute proves untrue, as when the husband stipulates that he possesses wealth but the reality proves contrary to what he stated. In his view, a marriage is automatically dissolved by invalid stipulations that conflict with its purpose, such as limiting it to a fixed term or stipulating divorce. Does it also become void when the dower is invalid—because it consists, for example, of wine, carrion, or the like? There are two reports from him. One is: