As for the marriage sermon (the khutbah of nikāḥ) that is transmitted from the Prophet—may blessings and peace be upon him—the majority of jurists hold that it is not obligatory, whereas Dāwūd maintained that it is obligatory. The crux of the disagreement lies in whether the Prophet’s own practice in this matter should be understood as a binding obligation or merely a recommended act.

Regarding proposing after another suitor has already made his proposal, the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—prohibition is firmly established. Scholars then differed over whether this prohibition renders the subsequent marriage contract invalid, and, if so, under what circumstances. Dāwūd declared that such a contract must be annulled. Al-Shāfi‘ī and Abū Ḥanīfah ruled that it need not be annulled. Two opinions are reported from Mālik, along with a third: that the contract is annulled prior to consummation but stands thereafter.

Ibn al-Qāsim explained that the prohibition applies only when a virtuous man proposes over the proposal of another virtuous man; if the first suitor is not upright and the second is, the latter may lawfully propose.

Most jurists restrict the time at which the prohibition applies to the point when mutual inclination has clearly developed between the parties, not at the very outset of the proposal. The proof is the ḥadīth of Fāṭimah bint Qays, who came to the Prophet—peace be upon him—and said that Abū Jahm ibn Ḥudhayfah and Mu‘āwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān had both proposed to her. He replied, “As for Abū Jahm, he never puts down his stick from (beating) women; and Mu‘āwiyah is penniless. Instead, marry Usāmah.”

With respect to the suitor’s looking at the woman, Mālik permitted it only to the face and hands. Others allowed looking at the whole body except the private parts. Some forbade it altogether. Abū Ḥanīfah permitted looking at the feet in addition to the face and hands.

The source of their divergence is that reports commanding the suitor to look at her come unrestricted, others prohibiting the gaze come unrestricted, and yet others restrict the permission to the face and hands, as many scholars understand from the verse, “And let them not display their adornment except what ordinarily appears thereof” (Sūrat al-Nūr, 24:31)—namely, the face and hands—and by analogy with the permissibility of uncovering them during ḥajj according to most scholars. Those who prohibited looking held fast to the original principle: the general prohibition of gazing at women.