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What is the legal ruling on an oral marriage that took place with the offer and acceptance between a man and a woman, without official documentation, and in complete secrecy due to parental refusal, and what is the solution to the problem of this secret marriage after the husband's family asked him to marry another woman?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

What transpired between you two is not a valid Islamic marriage due to the absence of the conditions for marriage. A marriage without a guardian (wali) and witnesses is null and void by consensus. You both must immediately sever the relationship and repent to Allah. If the man desires to marry, he should conclude a valid Islamic contract with you, with a guardian and witnesses. The woman's guardian is her father, then her paternal grandfather, then her son, then her full brother, then her half-brother (from the father's side), then their sons no matter how far removed, then the paternal uncles. If all these agnates are absent, then the Islamic judge will marry her. The consent or knowledge of the husband's family is not a condition for the validity of the contract, nor is the husband obliged to inform his first wife of his desire to marry another.

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

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