Al-Shafi'i said: "Al-sirr" (the secret) means sexual intercourse. He cited as evidence the verse by Imru' al-Qays:

Basbasa of the people assumed that I had grown old, and that my peers do not perform well in the "secret" (intercourse).

Promising the "secret" is for him to say: "I have intercourse that will please you," or the like. Likewise, if he says: "There is intercourse that will please you," he is forbidden from doing so because it involves vulgarity, obscenity, baseness, and nonsense.

Section: If he explicitly proposes marriage, or alludes to it in a situation where allusion is forbidden, and then marries her after it becomes lawful for him to do so, his marriage is valid. Malik said: "He must divorce her with one divorce, then remarry her." This is incorrect, because this forbidden act did not coincide with the marriage contract, so it had no effect upon it, just as in a second marriage, or as if he had seen her unveiled and then married her.

Section: It is forbidden for a slave to marry his mistress. Ibn al-Mundhir said: "The scholars have unanimously agreed that a woman's marriage to her slave is void." Al-Athram narrated with his chain of transmission from Abu al-Zubayr, who said: "I asked Jabir about a slave marrying his mistress, and he said: 'A woman came to Umar ibn al-Khattab while we were at al-Jabiya, and she had married her slave. Umar rebuked her and intended to stone her, saying: "It is not lawful for you."'" This is because the rulings of marriage and the rulings of ownership are mutually exclusive; for each one of them requires that the other be under its authority—he travels with her travels, stays with her stays, and spends upon her—thus they are mutually exclusive.