A man who marries a woman and divorces her before consummation: may he marry her mother?

Qatadah was asked: If a man divorces the woman he has married before consummating the marriage, may he marry her mother? He said: Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) used to say: She is in the position of the stepdaughter (rabibah).

Something similar is reported through another chain.

Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) saw no harm at all in a man marrying a woman's mother if he had divorced the woman before consummation, and he declared it disliked if the woman died before consummation.

Muslim bin Uwaymir of Banu Bakr bin Kinanah said: My father married me to a woman in Taif. I had not yet had intercourse with her when my uncle, who was her mother's husband, died. Her mother was a wealthy woman. My father said to me: "If you were to marry her mother, it would be very good." I said: "I would like that, but how, when I have married her daughter?" Then I asked Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) about this, and he said: "Marry her."

And I asked Sayyiduna Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), and he said: "Do not marry her."

He said: Then my father, Uwaymir, wrote to Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) about this, informing him in his letter of what Ibn Abbas had said and what Ibn Umar had said. Mu'awiyah wrote back to him: "I do not make lawful what Allah has made unlawful, nor do I make unlawful what Allah has made lawful. It is up to you; and women are many." He said: So he neither forbade me nor gave me permission. My father turned away from her, and the marriage did not take place.

Abu Amr al-Shaybani said: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) once gave a fatwa that if a man divorced his wife before consummation, or she died, he could marry that woman's mother. Then, when he came to Madinah, he retracted his fatwa and forbade people from doing so, even though children had already been born to the women after those marriages.

Masruq said regarding the verse of the Qur'an "and the mothers of your wives" [al-Nisa: 23]: What Allah has left unqualified (mubham), leave it unqualified, and what He has explained clearly, follow it.

Mujahid said regarding the verse of the Qur'an "and the mothers of your wives and your step-daughters who are in your guardianship": Consummation is intended in both of them.

Ibn Jurayj said: I asked Ata: If a man marries a woman and then divorces her without having seen her or had intercourse with her, may he marry her mother? He said: "No; (her prohibition) is unqualified."

Makhul used to consider it disliked that a man, after contracting marriage with a woman, should marry her mother.

Sa'id bin al-Musayyib said: Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) used to dislike that a man should marry the daughter of a woman who had died while married to him before he consummated the marriage with her.

Ibn Ulayyah said: I asked Ibn Abi Najih: If a man divorces a woman without having consummated the marriage, may he marry her mother? He said: "I have heard Ikrimah and Ata forbidding it."

Sayyiduna Imran bin Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) said regarding the verse of the Qur'an "the mothers of your wives": It is unqualified (mubham).

Tawus used to dislike it, and he too declared this verse unqualified (mubham).

Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) also declared this verse unqualified (mubham).