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Is the marriage contract considered valid if it was conducted in the presence of family but without the husband's proxy or an administrative contract? And is the girl considered married or divorced after the husband's two-year absence without consummation?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

For the validity of a marriage contract overseen by a representative of the husband, it is a condition that the representative be either an agent (wakīl) or a guardian (walī) of the husband. If not, then he is called a fuḍūlī (unauthorized intervener), and scholars have differed on the validity of such a marriage. Some have invalidated the contract, while others have validated it, contingent upon the approval of the person for whom the contract was made. The aforementioned contract is invalid by consensus if the husband does not ratify it. If he does ratify it, then the majority of jurists validate it, while the Shafi'is do not. Regarding the husband's absence, if the marriage is valid, the wife can refer her case to the Sharia court, which will contact the husband and obligate him to return or divorce, or the judge may pronounce the divorce on his behalf.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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