Mustadrak al-Hakim — Hadith 2753

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ma'qil bin Yasar al-Muzani (may Allah be pleased with him), concerning the saying of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic: "Do not prevent them from marrying their husbands" [Surah al-Baqarah: 232], that he related that this verse was revealed about him. He said: I had married my sister to a man, and he divorced her; then, when her waiting period ('iddah) had ended, he came again with a proposal of marriage. I said to him: "I married her to you, provided you with a home and honoured you, then you divorced her, and now you come again to ask for her hand?! By Allah, she will never go back to you." The narrator says: He was not a bad man, and the woman also wanted to return to him. Then Allah revealed this verse, and I said: "O Messenger of Allah, now I will marry her (to him)." So I married her to him again.
Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Ishaq says: In this hadith there is clear evidence that Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has entrusted the contract of marriage to the guardians and not to the women themselves, and that women have no authority in the marriage contract even if they are previously married (a widow or divorcee). This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim), but Imam Muslim did not record it.