marriage, while the latter did not intend to part with his wife. Rather, he intends her to remain his wife, which is incompatible with intending a compensatory divorce. The former, meanwhile, intends her to become the wife of the man who divorced her three times, which is incompatible with intending her to be his own wife. Hence, he pays no dowry; indeed, they may pay him themselves. Nor does he seek to establish paternity over any child or to form ties of kinship through marrying her. He may even act as an intermediary husband for both a mother and her daughter. These and other considerations show that he did not intend marriage.

“As for temporary marriage”: if a man intends to enjoy married life with a woman for a time and then part with her—for example, a traveller who goes to a town where he will stay for a time and marries there, intending to divorce her when he returns home—but concludes the marriage contract without stipulating a fixed term, there are three opinions on this in Ahmad’s school.

One holds that the marriage is permissible. This is the position chosen by Abū Muhammad al-Maqdisī and is the view of the majority. Another holds that it is a marriage contracted to make a woman lawful again for her former husband and is impermissible. This view is reported from al-Awzā‘ī and is the position defended by al-Qādī and his associates in juristic debate. A third holds that it is disliked but not forbidden.

The correct view is that this is not temporary marriage and is not forbidden. This is because he genuinely intends marriage and desires it, unlike the intermediary husband; he simply does not intend the woman to remain with him permanently. Permanence, however, is not a requirement: he is not obliged to keep her with him permanently, but may divorce her. Thus, if he intends to divorce her after a time, he intends something permissible. Temporary marriage, by contrast, resembles a lease: the marriage ends when its term expires, and he has no marital rights over her once that term has ended.

In the present case, however, his marital rights are established without a fixed term. His intention may change, and he may keep her permanently, which is permissible for him. Likewise, if he marries intending to keep her permanently but later decides to divorce her, that is permissible. And if he married her