Sunni marriage with Shi'a

[Aqdas]

From http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ala_hazrat/message/488

Question: A sunni married a shi`a woman. Is this nikâh valid or not? please issue a fatwa and have it sent as soon as possible. my personal opinion is that such a nikâh is invalid. those who repudiate the necessities of religion are kâfirs. Hence, it is not permissible for a Muslim to marry a kâfir.

Answer: [fatawa riDawiyyah, kitab an-nikah; vol.11/pg345, Lahore edition]

Shi`ah fall into three categories:

1. ghâli (ghulât): they repudiate the necessities of religion. for example:

a) to believe that qur'ân is incomplete.
b) to call it 'book of `uthmân'.
c) elevate sayyiduna `ali karram Allâhu wajhah and other imâms above the prophets salawâtAllâhi `alayhim wat taslîm.
d) if these imâms are held to be higher than even ONE prophet.
e) to allege that Allâh `azza wa jall was regretful after issuing a command and hence remorsefully, changed His earlier ruling
f) to allege that Allâh didn't realize the wisdom of a certain ruling (or the lack of it) and when He realized it, He changed the rule.
g) to allege that RasûlAllâh SallAllâhu `alayhi wa sallam practised taqiyyah in the course of his tabligh

those who hold the above and other such statements that amount to disbelief are kâfirs by ijmâ`a. all dealings with them are similar to those with apostates. it is in fatâwâ DHahîriyyah, fatâwâ hindiyyah, Hadiqatun Nadiyyah: [aHkâmuhum aHkâm al-murtaddîn] they are to be dealt with as apostates.

nowadays, most of the rafiDis fall into this category. their scholars and commoners, men and woman all of them seem to profess the aforementioned beliefs, except Allâh willing otherwise.

a woman with such beliefs is an apostate. a Muslim cannot marry her, nor a kafir nor an apostate. if a Muslim marries her and has intercourse, it is fornication. and a child born of such a relation is illegal and considered as a bastard.

--

2. tabarrâyi (sabbiyyah) : they don't profess such egregious beliefs but indulge in abusing the SaHâbah.

some people among this group reject the khilâfah of the shaykhayn raDiyAllâhu `anhumâ. these people are considered kâfir among the fuqahâ as is evident from khulâSah, hindiyyah etc. *BUT* the correct ruling is that of the mutakallimîn and that is they are bid`yis – subject to hell and dogs of hell – but not kâfirs. to marry a woman who belongs to this group, is valid but is profusely disliked. because it is from the Hadîth 'laa tanâkihûhum' / don't marry the people of bid`ah.

it is in SaHîH Hadîth that a man cursed a she-camel. RasûlAllâh SallAllâhu `alayhi wa sallam told them to leave the she-camel since it had become accursed. after this nobody ever touched that she camel (muslim).

it should be noted that a she-camel, is in no way liable to be cursed. it doesn't deserve to be cursed. but a tabarrayi rafiDi who curses the shaykhayn is himself cursed by Allâh. "these are the people who are damned by Allâh, and the damnation of the damners upon them" (2:159)

hence it is not desirable to live with a woman who is accursed (because of her cursing the shaykhayn).

---

3. tafDîli (tafDîlîyyah): this group revers all the companions; the accept the leadership of all the four Caliphs raDiyAllâhu ta`âlâ `anhum; but just elevate the position of `Ali raDiyAllahu `anhu above all others.

these people are nowhere near kufr. however it is bid`ah to do so (consider `Ali higher than others).

to marry such a woman is permitted (without any difference among fuqaha), yet it is disliked. if being with her may influence one's opinion of ahlus-sunnah, the dislikeability would increase to the point of prohibitively disliked (makrûh taHrîmi).

And Allâh sub-Hânahu wa ta`âlâ knows best.

[naqshbandijamaati]

subhan Allah! The ilm and wisdom of Ala Hadrat!
Thanks Bro!

[abu nibras]

assalam`alaikum,

I had a question about this position about the ghâli ( group (1) among the shia, what makes them worse than a jewish or a christian woman ? i.e. nikah is valid with jewish and christian women, and yet they can have worse beliefs than the shia about Allah, his Prophet and the Quran ?

is it that the ruling of not marrying a murtadd woman applies on them, if that is the case then is it okay to apply this on all of the shia women whose crime was to be born in a shia household ? Dont they deserve a rukhsah like the Christian and Jewish women to marry a Sunni Muslim and have a chance to correct their beliefs later.

was salam

[jasimisbest2]

Aslama o alaykhum..

ALA HAZRAT summed this up so nicely.

The shi'as fall in the catergory of GHALI as they are pure GHUSTAKHE and majority based in Iran and Pakistan they are hardcore haters of Sahabis and Hazrat Ayesha (ra).

Marrying a SHIA is not the best choice one can make as making them understand SUNNISM first will be the first right step and once they change then marrying them AS IMAAN is first not a WOMAN.

Waslam

[abu nibras]

Marrying a SHIA is not the best choice one can make as making them understand SUNNISM first will be the first right step and once they change then marrying them AS IMAAN is first not a WOMAN.

replace shia with christian in your paragraph. do you get my question now

[Aqdas]

this is a worthy discussion. please correct my mistakes.

abu nibras, i thought we can only marry those jews and christians that are real ahl al-kitab; which counts today's yahood and naSara out.

real ahl al-kitab are those that still follow the real teachings of musa, dawud and 'isa 'alaihimu's salam - hence, there aren't any around today [i don't think].

ghaali shi'a on the other hand have always been the same.

Dont they deserve a rukhsah like the Christian and Jewish women to marry a Sunni Muslim and have a chance to correct their beliefs later.

a sunni scholar once married a shi'a woman to change her. she changed him!

----------

apart from shar'i rulings, why should/would a sunni marry a shi'a when there are our sunni sisters waiting for husbands? if he marries a shi'a then it is nigh possible that a sunni sister might have to marry a shi'a/wahabi etc.

[naqshbandijamaati]

what if the shia girl is like really really pretty and 'fit'?! only joking. not to be taken seriously. after all the serious stuff lately on this forum i am only trying to make people laugh! [a bt like Ali G really. Aaii! Itsa Naiiccee! You like? Yakshamash!]

seriously though, sidi aqdas, this argument that today's christians and jews aren't real ahle kitab doesn't seem to hold up too well to historical fact since if u mean they are not unitarians then the christians of huzoor's time were also not unitarians but trinitarians like today's christians. also the jews were even more similar. i dont think u should include those who are nominally xtian or jewish but are really atheists and dont believe in god in this category. if u talk about practising jews and chrisrians of today then they are the same as those of yesteryear just fewer in number--but not THAT fewer--esp, catholics.

[Aqdas]

sidi aN and nj, read pages 28-31 of this book [read the whole book if you can but i'm saying 28-31 contain the answer to your query!]. alaHazrat explains why marrying ahlu'l bid'ah can be worse than marrying a kafir.

page 12 also has some answers.

[Aqdas]

in my first post, i had incorrectly attributed the translation of this fatwa to the wrong source. i have edited the post accordingly.

[AbdalQadir]

abu nibras,

i asked a scholar your same question some time back. he said the reason is that the kafir category of shias (and people like agha khanis and alevis) are neither muslims, nor are they ahlul kitab with a book and those are the only 2 groups of people we are allowed to marry from. they are just like other kafirs without a book like hindus, sikhs, budhists, athiests etc.

he didn't exactly mention apostasy.

Allah and His Messenger know best. 'azza wa jall, wa sal Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam