Muslim marriage (nikah, mehr, talaq) and Christian marriage

1. Muslim marriage: nature

Nikah means union. Muslim marriage is a civil contract, not a sacrament, though it carries religious approval. Justice Mahmood of the Allahabad High Court described it in Abdul Kadir v. Salima (1886) as a civil contract whose purpose is the procreation and legalising of children.

Essentials:

• Ijab and qubul: proposal and acceptance at one meeting.
• Witnesses: two adult Muslim men, or one man and two women (Sunni law); not required in Shia law.
• Capacity: sound mind and puberty under classical law (but see the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006).
• Mehr: a sum the husband agrees to pay the wife.
• Absence of prohibited relationships (consanguinity, affinity, fosterage).

Aims: legitimate sexual relations, procreation and legitimate children, companionship, and regulation of family life.

2. Types of Muslim marriage

• Sahih (valid): all conditions satisfied.
• Batil (void): forbidden in substance, e.g. with a close blood relative; no rights arise.
• Fasid (irregular): a curable defect, e.g. absence of witnesses or marriage with a fifth wife; becomes valid once the defect is removed.
• Muta (temporary): a marriage for a fixed period on payment of mehr, recognised only among Ithna Ashari Shias.

Classical law permits a man up to four wives at a time (polygyny), provided he treats them equally; a woman may have only one husband.

3. Mehr (dower)

Mehr is a sum of money or property the wife is entitled to receive from the husband in consideration of the marriage. It belongs to her absolutely and is meant to secure her against arbitrary divorce.

• Specified mehr: fixed in the contract. Proper mehr (mehr-ul-misl): fixed by reference to women of her family where none is specified.
• Prompt (muajjal): payable on demand. Deferred (muwajjal): payable on death or divorce.

4. Talaq and other modes of dissolution

By the husband (talaq):

• Talaq-ul-sunnat (approved):
  • Ahsan: a single pronouncement in a period of purity (tuhr), followed by abstinence during the iddat; revocable during iddat.
  • Hasan: three pronouncements in three successive periods of purity; the third is final.
• Talaq-ul-biddat (disapproved): three pronouncements at once (triple talaq), instantly irrevocable.
• Ila (vow of abstinence for four months) and zihar (comparing the wife to a prohibited relative).

By the wife or by agreement: talaq-e-tafweez (delegated right to divorce), khula (at the wife’s instance, usually by giving up mehr), mubarat (mutual consent), and judicial divorce under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939 (grounds include the husband’s whereabouts unknown for four years, failure to maintain for two years, cruelty).

Iddat is the waiting period after divorce or death (three menstrual cycles after divorce; four months and ten days after death) during which the woman may not remarry.

5. Christian marriage

Nature. For Christians marriage is a holy union ordained by God. The Roman Catholic Church treats it as a sacrament and indissoluble; most Protestant churches treat it as a sacred covenant that can be dissolved on grounds. Either way it is a lifelong, monogamous union of one man and one woman.

Aims:

1. Companionship and mutual help of husband and wife.
2. Procreation and Christian upbringing of children.
3. Legitimate fulfilment of sexual desire (traditionally, a remedy against sin).

Values: monogamy, fidelity, love and mutual respect, permanence, consent of both parties freely given.

Rites and rituals.

• Choice of partner, often with parental approval; engagement.
• Banns: public announcement in the church on successive Sundays so that objections may be raised.
• Ceremony in church before a priest or minister and witnesses: exchange of vows (“to have and to hold, for better, for worse”), exchange of rings, blessing, and signing of the register.
• In India, regional customs mix in: the minnu (tali) among Kerala Christians, haldi-type ceremonies, white saree or gown.

Law. The Indian Christian Marriage Act, 1872 governs solemnisation (by a minister of religion, a Marriage Registrar or a licensed person). Divorce is under the Divorce Act, 1869, amended in 2001 to give husband and wife equal grounds and to allow divorce by mutual consent (section 10A).

How this is examined

January 2026 (80 marks): “Triple talaq” and “Christian marriage”, alternative 6-mark notes. January 2026 (100 marks): “Christian marriage in India”, 8-mark note. February 2025: “Explain the marriage system among Christians” (10) and “Talaq and mehr in Muslim marriage” (6). For the Christian essay, use nature, aims, values, rites and law; for talaq and mehr, give the kinds of each and close with the 2019 Act.