namely, its raising one of its legs to urinate. This expression was therefore used figuratively to designate marriage arranged in this manner and became its established name. Similarly, fornication was called sifāh because the two fornicators pour out fluid: the man pours out—that is, spills—his fluid, and the woman discharges the seminal fluid. As for the water with which they wash, this was used as a euphemism for fornication and became an established term for it. In the pre-Islamic era, a man would meet a woman and say to her, “Sāfihīnī (lie with me),” considering this more seemly than saying, “Zānīnī (fornicate with me).”

It has also been said that shighār means leaving a marriage without a dower, derived from the expression balad shāghir, meaning a land empty of people. Success comes from Allah, glorified and exalted is He.