Was our nikah legal or not?
Hello,
I have a question about our nikah, which was six years ago. I'm a converted muslimah from Spain, and my husband is from Maroc. Our nikah took place in Maroc, in the city where he was working at that time. My family didn't know about the nikah; I didn't tell them because they are not muslim. His family didn't know at that moment either but some months later, before we did a small wedding with his family, he told them.
Our nikah was at the mosque. There was my husband, two of his friends, the imam and me. The imam asked some questions which my husband translated, as I remember he asked if I was muslim because I wanted ir or if my husband wanted it; he asked what I wanted if my husband ever were to divorce me, then he asked if I wanted to marry my husband. I had to say 'yes' 3 times in the Maroc language. They did talk some more with my husband and his friends, which I didn't understand because of the language. Then it was finished (so we both said yes 3 times and answered some questions, and his friends did too) and we left.
Well now my question is if this is a legal marriage in islam or not? If not, what is the best we can do to make it legal, and make everything we did ok? As you can understand, me or my husband didn't read anything from the koran or make any dua (of course now we are doing that), but probably the imam did (I don't know that). Can we still read something with the meaning it is for our nikah? Any verses or dua?
-muslimah275
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Asalam alaikum sister,
It sounds legal in the textbook sense..as long as the Imam can be counted as your wali and there was some maher exchanged. The part about not telling your families is not healthy at all, but it's already said and done, so I am no one to judge. Certainly the second wedding was legitimate.
As the Prophet Muhammad said, if there is uncertainty then err on the side of caution (paraphrased). If you really feel in your hearts that the nikah was invalid, then by all means just go to the mosque and simply redo it again. Bring some family members this time, and settle your anxiety.
And by the way, you two make a very cute couple in your icon pic!
Salam,
Shereen
Salaams,
Shereen is correct, and gave good advice. I just wanted to add that reading something from the Quran or making a dua is not a part of the nikkah that makes it valid or not. It's something completely optional, so if you didn't do anything like that you didn't leave out anything important. It's not necessary to include that if you did decide to redo your vows.
-Amy
IslamicAnswers.com Editor