He then returned to Mecca while Hind was still a polytheist. She seized him by the beard and cried, “Kill the misguided old man!” A few days later she embraced Islam, and their marriage was allowed to stand.

As for the analogy advanced in opposition to the report, its proponents argue that there is no difference whether she converts before him or he before her. If the waiting period is deemed relevant when she embraces Islam first, it should likewise be taken into account when he is the first to convert.

Book Three
On the Grounds That Confer the Right of Option (Khiyār) in Marriage

Chapter One
The Option Arising from Defects

The grounds that give either spouse a right of option in marriage are four:

1. Defects;
2. Inability to pay the dower or to provide maintenance and clothing;
3. Disappearance—meaning the husband’s being missing;
4. The emancipation of a slave-woman who is married.

Accordingly, this book comprises four chapters.

Chapter One: The Option Arising from Defects

The jurists have differed on the right of option due to defects for each of the spouses, and that in two respects:

1. Is the marriage subject to annulment because of defects or not?
2. If we say that annulment is possible, for which defects is it permitted and what are the legal consequences?

Regarding the first point, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and their schools hold that defects confer the option either to annul the marriage or to retain it. The literalists (Ahl al-Ẓāhir) deny that defects create any such option; this was also the view of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.

Their disagreement rests on two issues: (1) whether the statement of a Companion is authoritative evidence, and (2) whether marriage may be analogically compared to sale in this matter.

1. The Companion’s statement cited here is what has been transmitted from ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb, who said, “If any man marries a woman who is insane, leprous, or vitiliginous—in another wording, or one with an imperforate hymen (qaran)—she is entitled to her full dower, and that sum is a liability upon her guardian.”

2. As for analogy to sale, those who accept the option for defect in marriage argue that, in this respect, marriage resembles a sale. Their opponents reply that it does not, pointing out the consensus of Muslims that marriage is not annulled for every defect, whereas a sale can be.

With respect to the second point—the defects for which annulment is allowed—the scholars differ as to which defects warrant annulment, which do not, and the ruling that follows. Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī agree that annulment is permissible for