Marriage asks something of us long after the wedding ends. The Qur'an speaks of two people placed beside each other so that one might find rest in the other, and it names the feeling plainly: tranquility, affection, mercy. These verses describe what a shared life can hold when both hearts stay soft.
Some days a marriage feels like ease, and some days it asks for patience you did not know you had. The verses gathered here meet both. They counsel kindness in the ordinary hours, and they remember that the bond itself was given by God, who placed love between strangers and called it a sign.
30:21 — And among his signs is that he created for you mates from among yourselves, that you might find rest with them, and he placed between you love and mercy. In that are signs for people who reflect.
2:187 — It is made lawful for you, on the night of the fast, to be intimate with your wives. They are a garment for you, and you are a garment for them. God knew that you were betraying yourselves, so he turned to you in mercy and pardoned you. Now lie with them and seek what God has ordained for you. Eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread; then complete the fast until nightfall. Do not be intimate with them while you are in devotional retreat in the mosques. These are the limits set by God, so do not go near them. In this way God makes his signs clear to people, that they may be mindful.
4:19 — You who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will, nor to pressure them so as to take back part of what you have given them — unless they commit a clear indecency. Live with them in kindness; for if you dislike them, it may be that you dislike something in which God has placed much good.
7:189 — It is he who created you from a single soul and made from it its mate, so that he might find rest in her. When he covered her, she carried a light burden and went about with it; then when she grew heavy, they both called on God, their Lord: "If you give us a sound child, we will surely be among the grateful."
25:74 — And those who say, "Our Lord, grant us joy of our eyes in our spouses and our offspring, and make us a model for the God-conscious."
24:32 — Marry off the unmarried among you, and the righteous among the men and women your right hands rightfully hold. If they are poor, God will enrich them from his bounty. God is boundless, all-knowing.
9:71 — The believing men and the believing women are protectors of one another: they enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, they establish the prayer and give the alms, and they obey God and his Messenger. on these, God will have mercy. indeed, God is mighty, wise.
4:1 — O humankind, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the two of them spread out many men and women. Be mindful of God, in whose name you make claims upon one another, and of the wombs that bore you. Indeed, God is ever watchful over you.