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The question

Does the father's utterance of "Bismillah" after the guardian's proposal and before his acceptance of the marriage constitute a separation between the proposal and the acceptance that would invalidate the contract, bearing in mind that consummation with the wife has not occurred?

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Source: FtawySummarized from the full answer at Ftawy · imported Sep 2, 20261 min readAlso available in العربية
The answer

The Maliki and Shafi'i schools stipulate that acceptance (qabul) must be immediately linked to the offer (ijab) in a marriage contract. However, the Malikis overlook a slight delay due to the suitor's sermon or silence and speech equivalent to it, whereas the Shafi'is do not overlook such a delay unless it is a very short sermon that does not break the continuity. As for the Hanafi and Hanbali schools, they permit a delay between the acceptance and the offer, as long as the parties have not left the مجلس (assembly/session) or become preoccupied with something that customarily severs the connection. Based on this, separating the offer and acceptance with the Basmalah (Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim) and sending blessings upon the Prophet, peace be upon him, does not affect the validity of the contract according to the majority of scholars.

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Ftawy
Original fatwa ID
77624
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