The Muḥammadan law appoints no specific religious ceremony, nor are any religious rites necessary for the contraction of a valid marriage. Legally, a marriage contracted between two persons possessing the capacity to enter into the contract, is valid and binding, if entered into by mutual consent in the presence of witnesses. And the Shīʿah law even dispenses with witnesses.
In India there is little difference between the rites that are practised at the marriage ceremonies of the Shīʿahs and Sunnīs.
In all cases the religious ceremony is left entirely to the discretion of the Qāẓī or person who performs the ceremony, and consequently there is no uniformity of ritual. Some Qāẓīs merely recite the Fātiḥah (the first chapter of the Qurʾān), and the durūd, or blessing. The following is the more common order of performing the service. The Qāẓī, the bridegroom, and the bride’s attorney, with the witnesses, having assembled in some convenient place (but not in a mosque), arrangements are made as to the amount of dower or mahr. The bridegroom then repeats after the Qāẓī the following:—
1. The Istig͟hfār. “I desire forgiveness from God.”
2. The four Quls. The four chapters of the Qurʾān commencing with the word “Qul” (cix., cxii., cxiii., cxiv.). These chapters have nothing in them connected with the subject of marriage, and appear to be selected on account of their brevity.
3. The Kalimah, or Creed. “There is no Deity but God, and Muḥammad is the Prophet of God.”
4. The Ṣifwatu ʾl-Īmān. A profession of belief in God, the Angels, the Scriptures, the Prophets, the Resurrection, and the Absolute Decree of good and evil.
The Qāẓī then requests the bride’s attorney to take the hand of the bridegroom, and to say, “Such an one’s daughter, by the agency of her attorney and by the testimony of two witnesses, has, in your marriage with her, had such a dower settled upon her; do you consent to it?” To which the bridegroom replies, “With my whole heart and soul, to my marriage with this woman, as well as to the dower already settled upon her, I consent, I consent, I consent.”
After this the Qāẓī raises his hands and offers the following prayer: “O great God! grant that mutual love may reign between this couple, as it existed between Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and Zalīk͟hā, Moses and Zipporah, his highness Muḥammad and ʿĀyishah, and his highness ʿAlī al-Murtaẓā and Fāt̤imatu ʾz-Zahrā.”
The ceremony being over, the bridegroom embraces his friends and receives their congratulations.