NajimudeeN_M-India: Muslim State in India Today

NajimudeeN_M-India: Muslim State in India Today: The invasions of Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazni and Amir Timur
seem to have happened yesterday. The Qutb Minar in Delhi reminds one
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NajimudeeN_M-India: Nagore Dargah - (INDIA)

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Islamic Marriage Articles, - Advice Regarding Marrying non-Muslims

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QUESTION:
I need a fatwa regarding making the marriage contract in a church or in a civil court.So the question is: If a muslim is getting married with a Christian woman, is it permissible in Islam to make the marriage contract in a church or a civil court?
ANSWER:
as-Salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu:
As for regarding, marrying a Christian woman, one must understand that Allah has permitted for us the "muhsanaat" among them. This means that the woman _must_ be chaste. As for those Christian women who have had sex outside of marriage; it is impermissible to marry them. As most American woman, these days, have sex before marriage, a "muhsanah" from the Christians is a rarity!
As far as the contract, it is impermissible to have any part of the marriage ceremony at the church; as this entails witnessing shirk (or perhaps at times participating in shirk), like when the Priest takes the ring from thr groom, and then places it on the bride's thumb, forefinger and the middle finger while saying "In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost" (may Allah be exalted from such blasphemy) and finally rests the ring on the index finger. Also their marriage has many ceremonies which are from the practices of the unbelievers that one may not partake in.
As for the contract in a civil court, this is permitted if two conditions are met: (1) There is no acceptance of the laws and system of the disbelievers as supreme or valid as this would nullify our testimony of faith; (2) the registering of the marriage in the civil court results in some benefit that outweighs the harm of not registering the marriage. (This is the case with the majority of Muslim marriages in North America in particular for citizens and residents.)
QUESTION:
Secondly, is this allowed when the person is making a second contract according to the islamic teachings and laws regarding this issue?
ANSWER:
The Islamic marriage must proceed the civil registration; as it is only the Islamic marriage that makes the marriage valid. (An Islamic marriage entails in brief: (1) the acceptance of both partners and their suitability for marriage; (2) the acceptance of the bride's guardian; (3) the dower; (4) and two wintesses.)
A court marriage is not a marriage according to the sharia. And hence both partners, if not married Islamically, cannot be alone with one another, let alone, live as husband and wife.
I have one final word of advice regarding the dangers and appropriateness of marrying a Christian woman. (1) If the marriage ends in divorce; the court will almost always and without exception give custody of the children to the woman; (2) if the husband tries to leave the US with the children and a court order issues a warrant for his arrest for kidnapping; the Dept. of Justice will send FBI officers to arrest the husband and bring back the children, even if he is overseas. In fact, there are special mercenaries for hire that for a fee will kidnap the children and bring them back to the US. This has happened in Jordan and Iraq. I even know first hand of an incident where a British Muslim (a white Englishman with a big red beard) who was arrested in Medina by Saudi authorities due to the pressure of the British government to return his Muslim daughter back to her Christian drug abusing wife and her boyfriend and to place him in jail for kidnapping his Muslim daughter to Saudi Arabia; (3) many Muslims today are weak in faith and suffer from feelings of inadequacy (due to this lack of faith) in front of Westerners (and in particular white Americans); as a result, it is often that the Christian wife who will control their lives. I know of many cases of Muslims who have married these Christian women and due to the enviornment have ended up in a case of "virtual" apostasy; (4) how appropriate is it to marry a Christian woman given that there are many Muslim woman who lack husbands? These are not only American sisters, converts and immigrant children who have grown up in this country and who need strong Muslim men to learn Islam from them and take care of them; but what about the tens of million of Muslim women from Muslim countries who due to war and displacement live very poor lives and are looking for a Muslim man to teach them and rescue them from their misery. If the youth of Islam remain with only one wife or marry Christians, who will shelter our sisters from Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, Kashmir, Philipines, etc.! That is some advice from the heart that I felt must be brought forward. My apologies if these words are out of place.

PUBLISHER M.NajimudeeN-India

Islamic Marriage Articles, - 3. Marriage to a Jew or Christian

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Marriage to a Jew or Christian
Question 1:The holy Qur'an has absolutely allowed marrying Jewish or Christian women vide 5:5. But IslamicVoice March '96 in reply to a question forbade marrying a Catholic girl if she believed in Trinity. In my view the question whether she believes in one God or not is unreasonable, as there were Christians believing in the Trinity even in the time of the Prophet pbuh. (See Surah Maidah 5:73). The Qur'an has given sanction to believers to marry from the people of the book without any conditions.
- T.K. Yoosuf, Pulikhal, Malappuram
Question 2:Islamic Voice, in answer to a question on "Love marriage" states that a Muslim would be allowed to marry a Christian girl if she is a Unitarian Christian, in other words if she believes in One God. Fair enough. Can you kindly point out today a Unitarian Christian? Can you kindly point out today a Unitarian Christianity mentioned in the Qur'an? Unitarian Christianity is defunct now which is why our learned Ulemas have disapproved of this allowance. Hence your approval of such an alliance is erroneous and against the spirit of Qur'an.
- T.V.A. Abdul Malik, Madurai.
Answer 1:Believers are permitted to marry the girls from the people of the Book vide (Surah Al-Maidah 5:5) but you are greatly mistaken if you think that the permission is unconditional. Some conditions are laid down in the same verse i.e. you must pay Mehar to them and they must be virtuous women and not of loose character. Other conditions are derived from (Surah Baqarah 2:221) which forbids a Muslim to marry a Mushrik. As the Shariat orders are applicable on the apparent, all women who are involved in open Shirk are forbidden to believing men even if they are from Muslim families.
Deriving absolute orders from a verse when there are other verses also touching the subject can at times be very misleading. For example the same verse (5:5) allows the food of the people of the Book. But the permission is not unconditional although no condition is mentioned in the verse. In the case of meat, it should not be of an animal which is not slaughtered properly. The flesh of swine and that on which the name of other than Allah has been invoked is also unlawful although you frequently find these types of meat in the Christian families. Even at the time of the Prophet, Christians ate pork as it was allowed by St. Paul who was also the pioneer of Trinity in Christianity. And that is not all. You are not permitted to consume meat offered by Jews or Christians if you are certain that the Name of God has not been invoked while slaughtering the animal (Sell Surah Al-Anam 6:121).
So you see that the permission to marry a Catholic girl (Ahle-e-Kitab) in 5:5 is not without further conditions just as the permission to eat food of the Christians (in the same verse) is not unconditional. A Muslim's marriage to a Catholic woman is permitted only if she does not practise idolatry and amends her belief of sonship of the Christ to the Prophethood of Jesus.
Answer 2:I have personal friends among Christians (born as well as convert Christians) who denounce Trinity, believe in One God and proclaim Jesus Christ a Prophet of God. There are Unitarian Churches and quite a number of Christians are openly Unitarian. There are also a large number of Christians who are formally attached to protestant Churches and other denominations but believe in One God and the Prophethood of Christ. Not withstanding the above fact, I am not supposed to demonstrate a Unitarian Christian if someone wants to know the conditions of marrying a Christian girl. Simply put, if a Trinitarian Christian girl is converted to Unitarianism, a Muslim is permitted to marry her. No Aalim can dare cancel the allowance given by Allah and His Prophet. Ulema have only recommended (and rightly so) against such marriages as in most of these love marriages, the girl only pretends to be Unitarian for convenience's sake while the boy himself does not know even the basics of Islam. They have gone a step further, again rightly so, and recommended against marrying the Ahle-Kitab' girl, especially a Christian, who is converted to Islam because in most such cases, the conversion in only a pretence, sometimes for the express purpose of converting the boy to Christianity after a while. Ulema's warning is against deception and for those persons who are ignorant of Islamic ethics. They cannot and they have not altered the law. The genuine permission is neither erroneous nor against the spirit of Qur'an. It is for those seeking the permission to decide for themselves if they are only pretending to abide by the Shariat. In that case, they will deceive none but themselves as Allah knows what is in their hearts.
For the present day youth, it is wiser to explain the law with its boundaries and limitations to them instead of concealing the allowance provided by Shariat for the sake of untold considerations. In the Former case they may and they usually do try to be faithful while in latter they tend to altogether ignore the law.

PUBLISHER M.NajimudeeN-India