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Is it Islamically permissible for a young man to marry a woman who has recently converted to Islam and left her atheist husband due to the impermissibility of cohabitation between them, even though her divorce proceedings in court have not yet concluded?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

We congratulate the sister on embracing Islam and ask Allah to grant her steadfastness. We also congratulate the questioner for being a cause for this, bringing him the glad tidings of the Prophet's saying: "For Allah to guide a single man through you is better for you than red camels," and the Hadith: "The one who points to good is like the one who does it."

One must be careful not to fall into haram with this woman. If her husband remains in his disbelief, then her marriage to him has been annulled, and it is permissible for her to marry someone else after her iddah (waiting period) ends. She is not obligated to wait for the divorce proceedings to be completed, but marrying before that might carry legal risks.

Her marriage is not valid unless its conditions are met, such as the guardian (wali) and witnesses. If she does not have a Muslim guardian, the شرعي judge (Islamic judge) shall undertake her marriage. If marriage to her is not possible, then all relations with her must be severed to avoid temptation.

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

Read the full answer on Ftawy