It would not be valid. Our evidence is what Anas narrated: that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, manumitted Safiyya and made her manumission her dower. Agreed upon. In another wording: He manumitted her and married her. I said: O Abu Hamza, what did he give her as a dower? He said: Her own self. Al-Athram narrated with his chain of transmission from Safiyya, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, manumitted me and made my manumission my dower. With his chain of transmission from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, he used to say: If a man manumits his umm al-walad (slave-girl who has borne him a child) and makes her manumission her dower, there is no harm in that. Whenever manumission is established as a dower, the marriage is established, because the dower does not precede the marriage; and if the manumission were to occur after the marriage, it would not be permissible. This proves that it was contracted by this utterance. Furthermore, it has not been transmitted from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that he initiated a [separate] contract; had he initiated one, it would have been evident and transmitted just as other things were transmitted. Moreover, whoever is permitted to marry a woman to someone else without being related [to her], is permitted to marry her himself, like the Imam.

As for their statement that no offer and acceptance were found, it is of no effect; for if they were found, they would not rule for its validity anyway. Furthermore, if they were not explicitly found, what indicates them has been found, which is the act of making the manumission a dower. Thus, it is similar to when one marries a woman for whom he is the guardian, or as when the suitor says to the guardian: 'Have you married [her to me]?' and he says: 'Yes,' and he says to the husband: 'Have you accepted?' and he says: 'Yes,' according to our companions, and as when one uses allusive expressions according to Abu Hanifah and those who agree with him.

The second section: The marriage is contracted by his saying: 'I have manumitted you, and I have made your manumission your dower, and I have married you.' And by the same [utterance] while free from the words 'and I have married you.' This is the wording of al-Khiraqi, and it is what was mentioned in the hadith of Anas. It is also [contracted] by his saying: 'I have made your manumission your dower' or 'I have made your dower your manumission.'