Equality (Kafā’ah) in the Muslim Law of Marriage

Abstract

This chapter is an attempt to discover only how far social stratification is reflected in the doctrine of kafa'ah (equality) in the Muslim law of marriage. An examination of the sources dealing with kafa'ah indicates the paucity of references to such a doctrine in pre-Islamic Arabia. Ibn Manzur defines kafa'ah in marriage as the situation in which the husband is equal to the wife in nobility, piety, lineage, family, etc. Hanafi jurists, on the other hand, list six constituents of kafa'ah: lineage, confession of Islam, trade, liberty, piety, and means. Foremost among the constituents of kafa'ah is lineage. The legal effect of kafa'ah is that a guardian can dissolve the marriage of his female ward to a man not her equal if he (the guardian) did not consent to that marriage or was deceived in consenting to it.

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