Is It Permissible For The Fiancées To Hold Their Wedding Ceremony So That They Can Meet Comfortably?

Is it permissible for the fiancées to hold their wedding ceremony so that they can meet comfortably?

One of the most important differences of marriage from other types of contract is that there is, generally, a period of engagement before it. In this period, the parties get to know each other better and exchange presents.

It is permissible for the engaged couple to see and talk to each other in order to know each other well on condition that the parties observe intimacy concerns.

However, engaged persons should abstain from illicit cohabitation or being alone in a way that such act may cause gossips about themselves, and committing such acts that are not approved by Islam (Tirmidhi, Fitan 7; Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, al-Musnad, I, 310, 311, no: 176).

Today’s youth organize a ceremony which is publicly known as “religious nikah’’ both without knowledge of their parents and within the knowledge of their parents in their engagement periods in order to be mindful of the religious considerations, but unfortunately sad events occur as a consequence of these. The contracts of nikah should be registered and assured legally in order not to experience such sad events. Because the young people and their families, who assume themselves pious, mostly do not perform the requirements of contracts concluded between families in the events that there is no official registration, and one of the parties, generally the woman and her family, is victimized. Thereby, let alone executing the divine purpose of marriage set forth by our religion, humans oppress each other in the name of religion.

In terms of religion, matrimonial cohabitation commences with the solemnization of marriage, and some rights and responsibilities such as dowry (mahr), alimony (nafaqah), and inheritance accrue between spouses . As these rights cannot be guaranteed without official registration of marriage today, it is not appropriate for the person who will get married to hold traditional ceremonies publicly known as “religious nikah” or “imam nikah” without concluding a “civil nikah”.

Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWA