For this reason, wherever marriage is commanded, the command encompasses it in its entirety: both the marriage contract and sexual intercourse. The same applies wherever it is permitted, as in the following texts:

“Marry women of your choice.”

“Until she marries a husband other than him.”

“Marry off the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male and female slaves.”

“O young men, whoever among you is able to marry, let him marry.”

Wherever marriage is prohibited, however, the prohibition applies to its individual components, so that the contract alone is forbidden, as is intercourse alone. This is illustrated by the words:

“Do not marry women whom your fathers married, except for what is past.”

And:

“Your mothers are forbidden to you in marriage,”

and the remainder of the verse. Likewise, in the saying:

“A person in a state of ihrām must neither marry nor be given in marriage,”

and similar texts. For this reason, Mālik and Ahmad—according to the well-known position reported from the latter—distinguished between someone who swears to do something but does only part of it, thereby failing to fulfil his oath, and someone who swears not to do something but does part of it, thereby breaking his oath.

If prohibiting gold and silk for men, and gold and silver vessels for both men and women, entails prohibiting even portions of these things, there remains the question of keeping small amounts, whether out of need or without qualification. Keeping small amounts requires a more detailed distinction. For this reason, scholars disagreed over the permissibility of keeping such vessels without using them. Abū Hanīfah permitted this, as did al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad according to one opinion, although the well-known position of the latter two is that it is forbidden. The basic principle is that whatever is forbidden to use is also forbidden to keep, as with musical instruments.