Sahih al-Bukhari, 5127

Rapporté par ‘Urwa bin Az-Zubair : ‘Aïsha, l’épouse du Prophète (ﷺ), lui a raconté qu’il existait quatre types de mariage à l’époque préislamique de l’Ignorance. Un des types ressemblait à celui d’aujourd’hui : un homme demandait la main d’une femme à son tuteur ou à son père, lui donnait une dot, puis l’épousait. Le deuxième type était le suivant : un homme disait à sa femme, après la fin de ses règles : « Fais venir un tel et aie des rapports avec lui. » Son mari s’éloignait alors d’elle et n’avait plus de rapports avec elle jusqu’à ce qu’elle tombe enceinte de l’autre homme. Quand la grossesse était évidente, il reprenait la vie conjugale s’il le souhaitait. Il faisait cela pour avoir un enfant de lignée noble. Ce type de mariage s’appelait Al-Istibda’. Un autre type était que moins de dix hommes se réunissaient et allaient voir une femme, chacun ayant des rapports avec elle. Si elle tombait enceinte et accouchait, après quelques jours, elle convoquait tous ces hommes. Aucun ne refusait de venir. Devant eux, elle disait : « Vous savez ce que vous avez fait. J’ai eu un enfant, c’est l’enfant de tel homme ! » Elle désignait celui qu’elle voulait, et l’enfant portait son nom, sans que l’homme puisse refuser. Le quatrième type était que de nombreux hommes fréquentaient une femme qui n’en refusait aucun. C’étaient des prostituées qui mettaient des drapeaux à leur porte comme signe, et quiconque le voulait pouvait avoir des rapports avec elles. Si l’une d’elles tombait enceinte et accouchait, on rassemblait tous les hommes concernés et on faisait appel à un expert pour reconnaître à qui ressemblait l’enfant. L’enfant était alors attribué à l’homme désigné, qui ne pouvait pas refuser. Mais quand Muhammad (ﷺ) a été envoyé avec la Vérité, il a aboli tous ces types de mariage de l’époque de l’Ignorance, sauf celui qui existe aujourd’hui

Narrated 'Urwa bin Az-Zubair: 'Aishah, the wife of the Prophet (ﷺ) told him that there were four types of marriage during Pre-Islamic period of Ignorance. One type was similar to that of the present day i.e. a man used to ask somebody else for the hand of a girl under his guardianship or for his daughter's hand, and give her Mahr and then marry her. The second type was that a man would say to his wife after she had become clean from her period. "Send for so-and-so and have sexual intercourse with him." Her husband would then keep away from her and would never sleep with her till she got pregnant from the other man with whom she was sleeping. When her pregnancy became evident, he husband would sleep with her if he wished. Her husband did so (i.e. let his wife sleep with some other man) so that he might have a child of noble breed. Such marriage was called as Al-Istibda'. Another type of marriage was that a group of less than ten men would assemble and enter upon a woman, and all of them would have sexual relation with her. If she became pregnant and delivered a child and some days had passed after delivery, she would sent for all of them and none of them would refuse to come, and when they all gathered before her, she would say to them, "You (all) know waht you have done, and now I have given birth to a child. So, it is your child so-and-so!" naming whoever she liked, and her child would follow him and he could not refuse to take him. The fourth type of marriage was that many people would enter upon a lady and she would never refuse anyone who came to her. Those were the prostitutes who used to fix flags at their doors as sign, and he who would wished, could have sexual intercourse with them. If anyone of them got pregnant and delivered a child, then all those men would be gathered for her and they would call the Qa'if (persons skilled in recognizing the likeness of a child to his father) to them and would let the child follow the man (whom they recognized as his father) and she would let him adhere to him and be called his son. The man would not refuse all that. But when Muhammad (ﷺ) was sent with the Truth, he abolished all the types of marriages observed in pre-Islamic period of Ignorance except the type of marriage the people recognize today