to sign and to cherish

Magnificent and Meaningful Muslim Wedding Contracts

Silsila is proud to have revived the Nikahnama tradition of a beautiful and intentional written Muslim wedding contract, to be cherished. Since launching in 2017, we have served thousands of Muslim weddings. All of our designs are by real Muslim artisans, real calligraphers, and include a Nikah text written by Muslim scholars.

﷽.

ni·kāh·nā·mā

Our Nikahnama Promise to You

Only real art, no clip art.

Our nikahnama are real designs by real artists. Each nikahnama design started out by hand on paper, giving them a handmade feel that sets them apart from the rest. They are either original ideas, or reimagined historical manuscripts by real artists. We do not license any designs from stock websites, and instead support the work of real artists.
We solely own the copyright to all of our nikahnamas, which is why our designs are so unique. We believe that the use of stock graphics threatens the creativity in our community and the livelihood of traditional Islamic artisans. Read more here.

Supporting a chain of tradition

Our calligraphy is as beautiful as it is because it is commissioned by us and composed by hand, by real certified calligraphers with ijazah (the Arabic calligrapher's diploma) before being scanned and processed for our nikahnamas. Our compositions are copyrighted and unique. More beautiful art by our artisans can be found at our sister site, Silsila.

We can also include custom calligraphy of the couples' names as a tughra seal as a part of your nikahnama.

Partnering with real Muslim scholars

We have also worked with Islamic scholars to provide a full 4-page marriage contract with precise, shariah-compliant wording, that is sent digitally with each order. It includes statements of all of the requirements for a valid nikah as well as optional appendix points. Our nikahnama packages are real contracts, not just pretty pieces of paper

Purchasing is Easy.

1. Choose from our nikah or anniversary texts
2. Select your design, add your nikah details
3. After purchase, we'll send you a proof to review before fulfilling your order (limit 3 rounds of proofs)

Reviving a tradition

The nikahnama (synonyms: marriage contract, aqd-nama, kabin-nama, and many other names in different languages) has been a traditional Islamic document that has been used for centuries at the time of nikah (marriage). Unlike other common Islamic legal documents, nikahnamas were often much more colorful and decorated: before the era of photographs, nikahnamas were often the only piece of memorabilia from a wedding. While not a required document for a nikah, they’ve been used in several Islamic societies from Iran to Kashmir.

The nikahnama text generally begins with the basmala and a qur’anic verse pertaining to marriage. It follows its the details about the couple along with the agreed upon mahr (or dowry.)

Nikahnamas would always be attested by at least two witnesses (as required by Islamic law) with their signature and seals. The contracts were usually a page long though the actual page could reach almost a meter in length!) If they were more than a page, the first page would generally be the most ornate. The designs would usually consist of flowers, diamonds, or other shapes and would be embellished with different colored inks and gold.

19th century

A Qajar nikahnama

Handcrafted beauty

The calligrapher's touch

All of our Arabic work and traditional illumination designs are in consultation with trained islamic calligraphers and illuminators.

Our story

We founded nikahnama in 2017 after seeing potential in the idea of making beautiful nikahnamas available again for customers.  We hope that our products help more couples think deeply about their nikah contract and the values they want to base their marriage upon. Too many married couples were only able to review their nikahnama in the brief moments before signing it, making huge marital decisions in minutes, and we hope that that changes.

With nikahnama, we also hope to make the traditional Islamic arts more accessible, and to help support Islamic artists. Travelling through the Islamic arts we found too many artist who were unable to sustain their craft (a miniaturist resorting to graffiti! a Mughal fresco painter resorting to knitting!) We hope to do our own small part in sustaining our religion's beautiful centuries-old art forms.

Press

[It's] about more than making objects that couples can hang on their walls. It’s also about giving Muslim marriages a more solid foundation. [Link]

The Christian Science Monitor

If it takes attracting people with pretty calligraphy to make them realize the importance of the nikah contract, then so be it. [Link]

Religion News Service

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