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The Marriage Contract

The essential part of marriage is the honest decision taken by a man and a woman to become husband and wife. This, however, has to be expressed verbally by one party proposing by asking the second party for marriage, and the second party, the woman or her chosen representative, verbally expressing acceptance. Two witnesses must be there to attest for the request and the affirmative answer to it. Other documentation formalities prescribed by the law should be fulfilled, such as entry into a special register of a document signed by both parties and the witnesses and issuance of official copies, one to either party. The marriage contract may be conducted in any language suitable to the parties concerned. With the marriage contract the legal rights and duties of husband and wife to one another take effect as do the legal safeguards to their future progeny. Amongst the material rights of the wife is the reception of a dower. Part of it may be given at the contract and the remainder postponed. The exact amount of the dower is subject to mutual agreement, but the prophet repeatedly enjoined Muslims not to make the dower an obstacle to marriage as many fathers tend to do nowadays. In a certain incident he suggested to a man of limited means that his wife's dower would be teaching her two chapters  from the Quran. However, settlement of the dower should be left to the discretion of the parties concerned, without interference of the state. When  Caliph Umar addressed the people to forbid exaggeration in dowers, a woman quoted the Quran and interrupted Umar by reciting:

"But if you decide to take one wife in place of another, even if you had given the latter a whole treasure for dower, take not the least bit of it back. Would you taken it by slander or a manifest wrong?" (4:20)

To which the Caliph said: The woman is right and Umar is wrong.  The marriage contract may be made to include certain mutually agreed conditions. The wife may add a clause in the contract giving her the right of divorce at her own will or conditioned on a specific event such as the husband taking another wife.

It is a sunna recommended by the prophet that marriage should be made public and be celebrated in such ways as inviting relatives and friends to a party and a meal