1117 - Issue: He said: (The compatible person is one who possesses religion (1) and status.)

By status (mansib), he means lineage (hasab), which is ancestry (nasab). There is a difference in narration from Ahmad regarding the conditions of compatibility. According to one, there are only two conditions: religion and status, [and nothing else]. (2) According to another, there are five: these two, in addition to being free, the craft/profession, and wealth. Al-Qadi mentioned in "Al-Mujarrad" that the absence of these three does not invalidate the marriage, according to a single narration, and that the two narrations pertain only to the first two conditions. He said: It is reasonable that what invalidates it is the lack of compatibility in lineage and nothing else; because it is a permanent deficiency, whereas the others are not permanent and their deficiency does not extend to the offspring. He mentioned the two narrations regarding all conditions in "Al-Jami'". Abu al-Khattab also mentioned it. Malik said: Compatibility is only in religion. Ibn 'Abd al-Barr said: This is the general view of the school of Malik and his companions. There is a narration from al-Shafi'i similar to the statement of Malik, and another statement that it consists of the five we mentioned, plus being free from the four defects, making it six. Such is also the statement of Abu Hanifa, al-Thawri, and al-Hasan ibn Hayy, except regarding the profession and being free from the four defects. (3) Muhammad ibn al-Hasan did not consider religion [as a condition], unless he is someone who drinks intoxicants, goes out, and is mocked (4) by children, in which case he is not compatible; for the common behavior among the soldiers is licentiousness (fisq), and that is not considered (5) a deficiency. The evidence for considering religion is His saying, the Almighty: {Is he who is a believer like him who is a transgressor? They are not equal.} (6) Also, because the transgressor is despised, his testimony and transmission are rejected, he is not trusted with person or property, he is stripped of authority (7), deficient before Allah the Almighty and His creation, and has little share in (8) the world and the Hereafter, so it is not permissible for him to be a compatible match for a chaste woman, nor equal to her; rather, he is a compatible match for his own kind. As for the transgressor among the soldiers, he is...