that, if she is acting as the executor, the choice of prospective husbands rests with her. She may also fix the dower, after which the formal contract is concluded by her male guardians or, failing them, by the ruler. Most of the scholars of Madinah—Mālik’s disciples and others—hold this position, and a slave who has been appointed guardian over orphans is treated in the same way.

If someone other than a woman’s guardian marries her off with her permission, then:
• Should she be a woman of high standing, her guardian may either ratify the union or annul it.
• If she is of low standing—such as a freedwoman, a black woman, a client-woman, or anyone else of no recognised rank—the marriage is valid and her guardian has no right of choice, for every man is deemed her equal in status.

Another report from Mālik declares that whether a woman is of high or low rank, no one may marry her off except her guardian or the ruler. Yet a different report from him states that any previously married woman who manages her own affairs and places herself with a suitable suitor is to have her guardian ordered by the ruler to conclude the marriage; if he refuses, the ruler contracts it himself. Regarding such a case the ḥadīth says, “She has more right over herself than her guardian.”

If a guardian marries a woman off without her prior consent and she then learns of it and promptly approves, the marriage is valid; if she does not, it is invalid. Some hold that any contract concluded without her permission is null in every circumstance.

If a woman authorises two guardians and both marry her off—either simultaneously to two different men or successively to the same man—and it is not known which contract was first, both marriages are annulled before consummation, and a single divorce pronouncement suffices. If it is clear that one contract preceded the other, that groom has the stronger claim—unless the other groom consummates first, in which case he prevails.

Whoever marries off his adult son while the son is present and silent and then later says, “I was not content,” is believed upon taking an oath. If, however, the son was absent and repudiates the arrangement, the marriage falls away from both him and his father, exactly as it would for a stranger.

Yahya relates from Ibn al-Qāsim that if a guardian marries off his ward when there were indications—such as gestures of assent, the serving of the wedding feast, and the summoning of witnesses in her own house—or he believes she was aware of the matter, and she later denies it, she must swear an oath; if she refuses, the marriage remains binding upon her.