❀ Sharʿī Ruling on Marriage upon Marriage and Marriage with Daughter after Fornication ❀
Source: Fatāwā Rāshidiyyah, Page 429
Question
What do the scholars of Islam say regarding this issue: Muḥammad Sumar and Dar Muḥammad have family relations. Muḥammad Sumar is already married, but Dar Muḥammad is not yet married. Now, Dar Muḥammad wishes to marry Sumar’s wife, but the family refuses. Meanwhile, Dar Muḥammad has kept Sumar’s wife’s mother with him and committed fornication with her. Now he desires to marry her daughter (i.e., Sumar’s wife). Is such a marriage permissible or not?
✔ Answer
Alḥamdulillāh, waṣ-ṣalātu was-salāmu ʿalā Rasūlillāh, Ammā Baʿd!
It must be clearly understood that Dar Muḥammad’s marriage with Sumar’s wife is not valid, for two reasons:
① Marriage upon Marriage (Nikāḥ ʿalā Nikāḥ)
- As long as the woman remains in the marriage bond of her first husband (Sumar), another man cannot marry her.
- Only if the first husband divorces her, then marriage with another man becomes permissible.
② Relationship with the Mother of the Woman
- It is unclear whether Dar Muḥammad formally married Sumar’s wife’s mother or not.
- If he married her, then the daughter becomes permanently forbidden (ḥarām) for him.
- Even if he did not marry her but merely committed fornication with her, still Sumar’s wife will never be ḥalāl for him.
⚠ Warning
Such an action invites the severe anger of Allah ﷻ — that a man commits fornication with a woman and then seeks to marry her daughter.
Hadhā mā ʿindī, wallāhu aʿlam bis-ṣawāb.
