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Is it permissible to marry a Catholic woman who is pregnant by a Muslim man without a valid Islamic marriage contract? What is the ruling on the child's lineage in this case? Does the ruling differ if the mother converts to Islam before the marriage contract and childbirth? Is her guardian's consent acceptable via the internet? Is it permissible to adopt a specific school of thought for the sake of ease?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

What the young man did by having an illicit relationship with the girl is a grave sin and fornication, and he must offer sincere repentance. It is not permissible for him to marry her unless she also repents. The majority of scholars do not permit contracting marriage with her while she is pregnant by him, and the child is not attributed to him; this is the more preponderant view. Marriage contracts conducted online without the presence of the guardian or his representative are not valid. It is not permissible to adopt a specific madhhab merely out of desire or to seek leniency; rather, one must seek rulings from trustworthy scholars or Islamic centers.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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