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Marriage in Sharee'ah court is valid in cases of 'Adhl

Question

My cousin is an associate professor and his age is 50 years, He did court marriage in Pakistan with a 27 years old girl. But the problem is that now the father of a girl says your marriage is not valid because court marriage is haram, you have not seen the witnesses and your wali`s (the father) acceptance was not in the marriage. But the thing is that according to her, her father is not good person, who do not pray, and fast. She says once her mamoo (maternal uncle) raped her sister still her mother did not say anything to his brother, rather she blasted on her sister, and because of that she became a psycho. She (the girl who did court marriage with y cousin) was in the hostel, her parents did not paid attention to her, she wanted a good religious person, but her parents wanted her to marry the person of their choice who is rich. the question is that is this type of court marriage valid? when the girl knows that her parents are not religious and will not let her marry a religious person? and they do not pay attention to her. She signed a blank paper of nikah but when it was filled she read and changed the mahr from 25k to 125k. She did not even saw the witnesses of nikah (note the witnesses saw her picture and they witnesses for the nikah). after some months of this nikah her father said now i agree that this nikah took place and i wholeheartedly accept this person, and they said to the daughter that come back to home we will do rukhsati, when she came back they refused to give her back. both the husband and wife are now worried what to do. her parents continuously say that your nikah is not valid and you are a zaaniya. they are forcefully making her agree that you have to take khula. She and my cousin want to know what to do now? is their nikah valid in this type of situation? please answer because this is the matter of their life, they both are in a big trauma.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

If the father of the woman refuses to let her marry someone who is compatible with her, then he is preventing her marriage without justification (which is called 'Adhl in Islamic law). Thus, if a Muslim judge gives her in marriage to that man, the marriage is valid in such condition. For more benefit, kindly refer to Fataawa 84405 and 90689.

For the attestation of the marriage contract, it is not a condition that the witnesses see the woman or that she sees them; rather, it is sufficient that the witnesses attend the contract session and hear the exchange of 'Eejaab and Qabool (proposal and acceptance) from the two parties involved.

It is worth noting that the Mahr (i.e. the dowry) named at the time of the marriage contract is what is legally binding.

Allaah Knows best.

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