the same town while the other is in another, he must take special care to deal fairly with both and must not prolong his stay with either of them. There is no harm in his giving one wife more spending money, clothing, or jewellery than the other, provided that he does not reduce the other’s rightful share; some authorities, however, disapprove of this and state that, should he do so, he has failed to be just.
When a man marries a virgin bride, he must stay with her for seven nights, and if she has been previously married, for three nights, whether he was single or already married when the contract was concluded. If he already has another wife, he resumes the normal rotation only after the days due to the new bride have elapsed, without shortening them.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam said: this requirement applies only when the man has other wives; if she is his only wife, he is not obliged to remain with her. This view is more widely reported from Mālik than the first, though both opinions are transmitted from Mālik and the scholars of Madinah.
The narrations from Mālik also differ as to whether staying with a new wife when one already has another is obligatory or merely recommended. Ibn al-Qāsim relates from him that remaining seven nights with a virgin and three with a previously married woman is mandatory when there is another wife. Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, on the other hand, reports that it is recommended, not obligatory.
Some jurists say that during these days he may go out for congregational prayer and other needs; others allow him to leave only for the Friday prayer; yet others hold that he should not leave at all until he has completed the three or seven nights owed.
A Muslim wife and a Jewish or Christian wife are equal in their entitlement to nights, and, according to Mālik’s established view, so are a slave-woman and a free woman. Another report from him, however, gives the free woman two-thirds of the nights and the slave-woman one-third. This was also the opinion of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib and was adopted by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Salamah and his son ʿAbd al-Malik.
Abū Zayd reports from ʿAbd al-Malik that Mālik later returned to the view of Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib concerning the division between a free woman and a slave-woman, saying: the free woman is allotted two-thirds, and the slave-woman