he knows her before marriage, affection will endure. It also indicates that the marriage is valid even if he has not seen her, since he did not explain the purpose of looking at her as making the marriage valid. This shows that looking is not obligatory and that marriage is valid without it. It is not customary among Muslims or others to describe the woman being married in that way. A sale is different: either it is invalid, or the buyer has the option to cancel upon inspection. There is, however, a weakly supported view reported within Ahmad’s school that a sale is valid without inspection or description, and that no option to cancel is established.

This distinction rests on the difference between women and property: women are ordinarily accepted as wives despite their differing attributes, whereas property is not accepted irrespective of its attributes. Property is sought as wealth, and its value varies according to its attributes. Marriage, however, is intended to establish ties by marriage and provide intimate enjoyment, both of which can be attained despite differences in attributes. This is a distinction recognized by Islamic law and intelligible in light of people’s customs. But when it is known that a man did not consent to what he received, because he stipulated a particular attribute and she proved otherwise—and likewise when the roles are reversed—binding him to something to which he did not consent runs contrary to the established principles.

If he were to say, “I thought she was more beautiful than she is,” or “I did not think she had this characteristic,” or something similar, then he himself was negligent: he neither asked about it, nor saw her, nor sent someone to see her. It is neither prescribed by Islamic law nor customary for her to be described to him in the marriage contract as slave women are described in advance-payment sales. Allah has safeguarded free women against this and loves that their privacy be preserved. This is why a woman is prohibited from concluding a marriage contract. If women do not conclude the contract themselves, how, then, should they be described in it? As for the man, his attributes are readily apparent