What is the ruling on marriage by exchange?
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Question:
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. May Allah bless you, Honorable Shaykh, and benefit us with your abundant knowledge. Is marriage by exchange forbidden if there is a mahr (bridal gift)?
Answer:
Marriage by exchange is what is called shighar. Shighar: there is a prohibition in the hadith against marriage by shighar.
Shighar is making a woman the exchange for a woman, where there is no mahr (bridal gift); you make a woman the substitute for a woman. He marries his daughter on the condition that the other marries his daughter, and there is no mahr between them. This is shighar by the consensus of the scholars, and it is an invalid marriage, an invalid marriage. Because...
...it contains harm to women, and that a woman is married to someone she does not want, and it is not in her interest, just so that he can obtain a wife from the other. So the only interest considered here is the interest of the wali (guardian), and there is no consideration of the woman's interest. So it is injustice to the woman. If it is a woman exchanged for a woman, and there is no mahr, then this is shighar by the consensus of the scholars, and it is an invalid marriage, and intercourse with it is forbidden.
As for when there is a mahr, where every woman has a mahr, a woman exchanged for a woman, but each one has a mahr, then the scholars have differed on this. Some consider it shighar like the first case, and it is not valid, it is invalid. And some consider it a valid marriage, because as long as there is a mahr, there is no injustice to the woman; she was given her right and given the mahr, so there is no injustice to her, and it would be valid. But the first opinion is the stronger one (rajih) that it is shighar even if there is a mahr, because the mahr is taken as a ruse, and the woman is not given full freedom in choice. So there is injustice to the woman even if there is a mahr. The correct view is that it is shighar, and it is obligatory to avoid this and stay away from it.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. May Allah bless you, Honorable Shaykh, and benefit us with your abundant knowledge. Is marriage by exchange forbidden if there is a mahr (bridal gift)?
Answer:
Marriage by exchange is what is called shighar. Shighar: there is a prohibition in the hadith against marriage by shighar.
Shighar is making a woman the exchange for a woman, where there is no mahr (bridal gift); you make a woman the substitute for a woman. He marries his daughter on the condition that the other marries his daughter, and there is no mahr between them. This is shighar by the consensus of the scholars, and it is an invalid marriage, an invalid marriage. Because...
...it contains harm to women, and that a woman is married to someone she does not want, and it is not in her interest, just so that he can obtain a wife from the other. So the only interest considered here is the interest of the wali (guardian), and there is no consideration of the woman's interest. So it is injustice to the woman. If it is a woman exchanged for a woman, and there is no mahr, then this is shighar by the consensus of the scholars, and it is an invalid marriage, and intercourse with it is forbidden.
As for when there is a mahr, where every woman has a mahr, a woman exchanged for a woman, but each one has a mahr, then the scholars have differed on this. Some consider it shighar like the first case, and it is not valid, it is invalid. And some consider it a valid marriage, because as long as there is a mahr, there is no injustice to the woman; she was given her right and given the mahr, so there is no injustice to her, and it would be valid. But the first opinion is the stronger one (rajih) that it is shighar even if there is a mahr, because the mahr is taken as a ruse, and the woman is not given full freedom in choice. So there is injustice to the woman even if there is a mahr. The correct view is that it is shighar, and it is obligatory to avoid this and stay away from it.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم زواج البدل؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.