In Sunni Islam, a marriage contract must have at least two witnesses. Proper witnessing is critical to the validation of the marriage, also acting as a protection against suspicions of adulterous relationships. In Shia Islam, witnesses to a marriage are deemed necessary, but in case are not available then the two parties may conduct the nikah between themselves. It is also believed that temporary marriage, or Nikah Mut'ah was prohibited in Sunni Islam, the necessity of witnessing was introduced by Sunni caliphs, specifically Umar, to ensure that no couples engaged in secret union.
Authorization
Marriages are usually not held in mosques, because typically men and women are separated during the ceremony and reception. Islam doesn't authorize any official clergy, so any Muslim who understands the Islamic tradition can be the official for the wedding. However, if a Muslim wedding is held in a mosque, then a marriage officiant, known as qadi, qazi or madhun, may preside over the wedding.
Type and content
Among the stipulations that can be included in the marriage contract include giving up, or demanding, certain responsibilities. The contract may also be used to regulate the couple's physical relationship, if needed. The marriage contract can also specify where the couple will live, whether or not the first wife will allow the husband to take a second wife without her consent. The wife has the right to initiate divorce, it is called khula. She either gives back the dowry or does not, depending on the reason for divorce. The man has the right to divorce. The marriage contract somewhat resembles the marriage settlements once negotiated for upper-class Western brides, but can extend to non-financial matters usually ignored by marriage settlements or pre-nuptial agreements.
Purposes
One important purpose of the contract is to make sexual intercourselegal. This is supported by various Hadiths and quotations: Sahih Bukhari, Book 62, #81:
Narrated 'Uqba: The Prophet said: "The stipulations most entitled to be abided by are those with which you are given the right to enjoy the private parts."
Al-Mughni, Kitab al Nikah:
... the Prophet : "The most deserving of conditions to be fulfilled are those by means of which sexual intercourse becomes permissible for you."
Cited in the common problem of translation of marriage contracts is due to the varieties of word synonyms in the legal Arabic system which have no equivalence in the English system in terms of marriage contracts, such as; مهزٍ, شبكه, صداق. الخ, Mahr, Shabkah, Sadaq-, whereas, all of these examples attributed and affected by the culture and tradition of the Arabic language.
