Does The Wedding, Which Was Held During The Engagement, Become Void With The Breaking Of The Engagement?
Does the wedding, which was held during the engagement, become void with the breaking of the engagement?
Marriage is a serious institution. It will be permissible for the people who want to marry to proceed with legal procedure first and then hold the ceremony that is publicly known as “religious nikah”.
However, a marriage contract concluded duly by those who are engaged in order to get married in the future will be valid in religious terms. As a woman in such condition is the wife of the person to whom she is married in religious terms, she may not marry to another man unless her husband divorces her.
If the woman changes her mind to come together later but the man does not divorce her, their nikah continues in religious terms. In such a case, the course of action is to convince the husband to divorce his wife. If the efforts to convince the man for a divorce fail, then their marriage should be terminated by means of arbitrators. Under such circumstances, it is not advisable in religious terms for a man to be reluctant about getting divorced just for hurting his wife (Baqarah, 2/231).
Therefore, in such event, first of all, a person who is authoritative and virtuous and has religious knowledge should try to correct the relationship between spouses. If his efforts fail, then he should try to convince the husband, who is reluctant to get divorced, to divorce the woman by explaining him that his attitude provides no benefit, that he should end such nikah, that a nikah cannot be used to injure a person, and that this does not match with the spirit of Islam.
If a man insists on not divorcing her despite this, families of man and woman choose an arbitrator in order to come to a conclusion on this matter. If one of the families resists and does not choose an arbitrator, the opposite party may choose a just and impartial arbitrator on behalf of it.
First of all, the chosen arbitrators arbitrate. If it is needed or obligatory, they may decide on their breaking up even if the husband does not give consent. Thereby, the bond of nikah is ended between the parties.
Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWA
