if it is stipulated that he is to divorce her once he has made her lawful again for her former husband. The same applies to stipulating divorce after a specified term. Thus, among those who hold temporary marriage to be forbidden, there is consensus that a stipulation requiring divorce when the term expires, or after making her lawful again for her former husband, is invalid. Allah has permitted neither marriage for a fixed term nor marriage contracted to make a woman lawful again for her former husband.

A group of jurists said that the contract is valid and binding, while the stipulation is invalid. This is the position of Abū Hanīfah and al-Shāfi‘ī, and of Ahmad according to one of the two narrations from him. Many of these jurists then distinguished between setting a time limit and imposing a stipulation.

They said: If he says, “I marry her for one month,” this is temporary marriage and is invalid. Some carried the analogy through consistently—this is Zufar’s position—and a corresponding view was derived within Ahmad’s school: the contract is valid, while the time limit is disregarded, just as they held that the stipulation is disregarded.

If, in a marriage intended to make a woman lawful again for her former husband, someone says, “On condition that, once you have made her lawful again, you divorce her,” this is a stipulation, just as if someone says in a temporary marriage, “On condition that, when the term expires, you divorce her.”

But if he says, “There will then be no marriage between you,” two views on this have been attributed to al-Shāfi‘ī and others. According to one, it is treated as an invalid stipulation, so the marriage is valid. According to the other, it is treated as setting a time limit, so the marriage is invalid.

If an option to rescind is stipulated in a marriage contract, there are three positions, corresponding to three narrations from Ahmad: that both the contract and the stipulation are valid; that both are invalid; or that the contract is valid but the stipulation is not.

The stronger view is that this stipulation is valid. Even if it is deemed invalid, the contract would not be binding without it, for the basic rule is that stipulations must be fulfilled, and stipulating an option to rescind serves a legitimate purpose, especially in marriage. This is based