Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed the marriage made in the state of polytheism as valid and kept its people upon it after (accepting) Islam, then, and Allah knows best, nothing is permissible except that the divorce of the people of polytheism also be affirmed as valid."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب النكاح / Q14075
Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: Marriage in the Jahiliyyah was of four kinds. One of them is the marriage of people today: a man proposes to the guardian of a woman for her, then pays her dowry and marries her.
Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) argued from the fact that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stoned two Jews who had committed adultery, treating their marriage as what made them muhsan (married and so liable to stoning): so how could we hold that it does not make her lawful when it makes her muhsan?
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب النكاح / 14075
Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said that the noble Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Nothing of the fornication of the people of the Jahiliyyah gave birth to me; nothing gave birth to me except a marriage like the marriage of Islam."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب النكاح / 14076
Ja'far bin Muhammad (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates from his father concerning the saying of Allah Almighty: "There has come to you a Messenger from among yourselves; grievous to him is what you suffer; he is ardently concerned for you." [Surah al-Tawbah: 128] He said: Nothing of the births of the Jahiliyyah touched him. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I was born of marriage, not of fornication."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب النكاح / 14077
Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said that a man said: "O Messenger of Allah, where is my father?" He said: "In the Fire." When the man turned to leave, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "My father and your father are in Hell."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب النكاح / 14078
It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I asked permission to pray for forgiveness for my mother, but permission was not given; then permission was given (to me) to visit her grave."
Hadith Referenceالسنن الكبرى للبيهقي / كتاب النكاح / 14079