jazakallahu khair, wassalaam
Urwah ibn al-Zubayr (Radhiallaahu Anhu) narrates that Aaisha (Radhiallaahu Anha), the wife of Nabi (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam), informed him.
In the time of Jaahiliyyah, Nikah was of 4 types.
1. The first type of Nikah was like the way people marry at present, viz. a person proposes to the guardian of a woman, he would fix the Mahr and get her married.
2. The second type of Nikah was where a man would tell his wife after she became pure from her menses, ?Go to so and so person and ask him to have intercourse with you.? After this, the husband would stay away from her and not touch her until it was confirmed that she had conceived. The husband would then have intercourse with her, if he wished. The reason for this practice was to ensure the nobility of the child (the man who committed adultery would be a person of high status). This Nikah was termed as ?Nikah of seeking intercourse?.
3. The third type of Nikah was a group of less than 10 people would gather and all of them would have intercourse with one woman. After she conceives and gave birth and some time passed, she would send for those men and none of them would be able to refuse until all of them gathered by her. Then she would say to them, ?You know what you have done, I have given birth and this is your son, O so and so (mentioning the name of whoever she wished from them and the child would be attributed to him)?.
4. Many men would gather and they all would have sex with one woman and she would not stop anyone who came to her. These were the adulteresses who would hang flags on their doors as a sign that whoever desired them could have them. When she conceived and gave birth, those men would be brought to her. A Qaaflah (one able to look at the child and attribute it to the rightful father) would be called. The child would be attributed to the man chosen by the Qaaflah. The child would be called his son and he was unable to refuse the child being his.
Allah Ta’ala sent Muhammad (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam) and abolished all the Nikahs of Jaahiliyyah except the Nikah of Islam present today. (Abu Dawud pg.316; Imdaadiyyah; Bukhari ? Kitaab-un-Nikah)
and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best
Mufti Ebrahim Desai