Abstract:
It is a well-known fact that, Islamic Law (Shari‘ah) is a complete code of
life, which regulates every facet of human endeavors. This is more so with
regards to the principles laid down under it to regulate the life of a Muslim
family. Thus, for a marriage to be valid under the Shari‘ah, certain
requirements must be met. These requirements, though very sacrosanct, are
not in any way rigid or burdensome. However, the new trend is that a lot of
changes have been introduced in this 21st century to frustrate these
requirements, culminating in flagrant abuse of them in various modes. This
paper critically appraises the legal requirements of a valid marriage under
the Shari‘ah in comparison with the marriage practices among the Muslims
in Nigeria. A special attention is given the pre-marriage steps laid down
under the Shari‘ah vis-à-vis the popular practice of pre-marriage courtship
in the Western world practice has also been embraced by Muslims in the
country. The newly introduced and well pronounced celebration of marriage
with highly expensive ceremonies as a requirement of marriage among the
Nigerian Muslims is equally assessed on the scale of Islamic Law. This study
adopts the doctrinal research methodology and jurisprudentially combs all
the relevant materials, textually and contextually.
