—a marriage that is not open to annulment and in which intercourse is wholly lawful. It makes no difference whether the wife is free or enslaved, Muslim or one of the People of the Scripture, sane or insane, adult or a minor of an age normally deemed fit for intercourse. The very same conditions that render a man muḥṣan render a woman muḥṣana, save that a pre-pubescent boy or an insane husband does not himself attain ihsan through such intercourse. An invalid (fāsid) marriage does not confer ihsan, nor does a marriage contracted while the spouses were idolaters, unless intercourse takes place after they have embraced Islam. In Mālik’s view, intercourse that occurs during ihram, menstruation, iʿtikāf, or fasting does not count toward ihsan, and neither does intercourse with a woman who is merely owned as a slave; ownership in itself is not ihsan.

Every act that requires the ritual bath (ghusl) likewise entails the ḥadd, and the ihsan of either spouse is established only by actual penetration of the vagina; without that, ihsan is never realised. A woman who has been irrevocably divorced three times does not become lawful to her former husband until such penetration has occurred in a subsequent marriage.

According to Mālik—as reported by the scholars of Medina and others—the ḥadd is obligatory for anyone who penetrates through the anus; once penetration has taken place, the duties of ghusl and the ḥadd are the same, whether ejaculation follows or not, and nothing contrary to this is authentically attributed to him. Mere entry into marriage and cohabitation by an impotent man (ʿanin) or anyone similar does not render him muḥṣan.

If a man who had been a slave has intercourse with his wife after manumission, he becomes muḥṣan; the same ruling applies to a man who was formerly an unbeliever and then has intercourse with his wife after embracing Islam. A slave-woman does not become muḥṣana until she is approached in a marriage that follows her emancipation, and the same applies to a woman who converts to Islam.

An invalid marriage that fails to confer ihsan includes arrangements such as shighār, marrying during the waiting period (ʿidda), marrying a foster-sister, marrying a slave-girl without her master’s permission, and every comparable case that is annulled after consummation; intercourse within any of these does not amount to ihsan. By contrast, in a marriage that is not annulled after consummation, intercourse does confer ihsan.

If the spouses separate before consummation and later dispute whether intercourse took place—one affirming and the other denying—neither of them is deemed muḥṣan until they both agree that intercourse did occur; only then are they considered muḥṣan according to Mālik, whereas Ibn al-Qāsim disagreed.