Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Dear brother,

i just wanted to ask u ,,,,,,as a muslim person if some one got engaged with muslim girl and soon become married ,and they got involve in each other feeling each other and some times they talk abt the stuff which one usually say after marriage. is it a sin or not. Knowing the fact that they talk on phone and on internet.

Will wait for ur reply

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Answer:

Engagement

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Dear and Beloved Brother, an ‘engagement’ between a man and a woman to marry has absolutely no legal basis or standing in Shariah, and the man and the woman will be considered non-mehrams to each other until their actual ‘nikaah’ is performed.

Unless and until their ‘nikaah’ is performed, all the restrictions and limitations and commandments that are prescribed in the Quran and Sunnah between two non-mehram members of the opposite sex must be honored and followed by those who sincerely fear Allah and the Last Day.

Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 8.260 Narrated by Ibn Abbas

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said: ‘The ‘zina’ of the eyes is the sight (to gaze at a forbidden thing), the ‘zina’ of the tongue is the talk, and the inner self wishes and desires, and the private parts testify all this or deny it."

If they meet or talk to each other in private, regardless whether physically or through the mediums of phone or the internet; or feel, touch or (Allah forbid) do things which are only legal after they have united themselves in the sacred institution of marriage, it would indeed constitute a grave sin in the Sight of their Lord.

The boy and the girl who have committed these grave errors in ignorance should immediately turn to their Lord seeking sincere forgiveness for their transgression and absolutely abstain from disobeying the limitations and commands of Allah Subhanah; it is expected that they will find their Lord Forgiving and Merciful.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 39 Surah Zumur verses 53-54:

(O Prophet) say: “O My servants who have wronged their own souls….Do not despair of Allah’s Mercy! Surely, Allah forgives all sins. He indeed is the All Forgiving, All Merciful. Return to your Lord and submit to Him before the scourge overtakes you; for then you may get no help from anywhere.”

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 3 Surah Ale Imraan verse 135-136:

Allah likes such good people very much, who, if ever they commit a base deed or wrong their own soul by the commission of a sin, remember Allah instantly, and ask for forgiveness from Him for their shortcomings. For who, but Allah, can forgive sins? (And Allah loves those) who do not knowingly persist in the wrongs they did. These will be rewarded with forgiveness from Allah, and with Gardens beneath which canals flow, and they will reside therein forever! How excellent is the reward of those who do good deeds!

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan