Marriage

Her Father Opposes Her Marriage

I am a motherless daughter. I want to get married but my father had been taking this issue too easy. Either he refuses the proposals on the basis of petty issues or I end up getting a rejection. I have asked from my mother?s sisters and friends to look for a suitable person. Among them, there are ones who are sincerely taking this task and yet others who are not. Overall, I haven?t had much luck yet.What should I do? After consulting one of my friend?s mother, I registered my name in matrimonial websites with high precautions, such as not showing my picture to anyone unless I know a bit about them and who sound trustworthy. Till now, only once I had shown my picture (in Hijab, of course) to one very sound person in all aspects (though I know I can?t guarantee it). That person is starting his job currently so we haven?t got to talk much.I am the only daughter. My brother is younger than me. I am not that open and friendly with my father to show such concerns. Thus, I am totally helpless at what to do. I am not much happy with my current life since I lost my mother. My father has remarried to someone I truly ended up hating. So, I am eager to get married to someone I can be truly happy with, leaving everything behind even the country my family and me are in. I have tried Istikhara recently on which I just ended up deciding, yet again, to leave it to Allah. But shouldn?t someone or I be doing something about it too? I would like a detailed advice on this issue, given my current situation.

Is This Marriage Valid?

In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious The Most MercifulDear Respected Scholars,Assalama alay kum.  Before I post my question, Alhamdullilah, its really nice to have you here to enlightened us on the doubts and questions we have as Muslims especially those who are revert to Islam like me. I actually send this query 3 months ago however I didn?t received any response yet.  I was involved to a muslim man before I reverted back to Islam and the same man whom I make a contract with. I mean to make our relationship halal, we make a marriage contract of ourselves, I am actually the one who drafted it, we signed and he let   his friends signed as a witness and he let his friends and those we know that I am his wife, including his family, Is this valid? We did this as of the moment since we cannot yet live together as taking an accommodation here now is very expensive. I read most of your discussions about marriage and really I guess the one we have is null and void. Now I am really confused, he told me that this is fine and Allah knows best our intention, but I insist that we should marry on the Shariah court to make it legal and since no local imam is making a marriage ceremony here in the UAE that is the only option we have to do. I had discussed this to him many times  and we really had a disagreements but he told me that he have asked sheikhs from his country, Egypt and nobody there can tell that this kind of marriage is haram (urfi marriage/temporary marriage) and he told me that the reason why he put it in paper is because he means it. Based on my reading and understanding of marriage in Islam it should be made easy.   Could you please enlighten us on our situation right now?Jazakallahu khayran.

Repentance from Zina

Salaam, I sent you a question regarding repentance from zina. But i need a clarification. I understood from the response that for committing fornication, lashes as a  punishment is Not a must to get forgiveness from Allah.But i need to know, if one repented from zina and then repeated sins of similar nature, is the door open for forgiveness?? And if i confided in some people about this sin in the past, or others may have an idea, if people know about it in my past, will Allah still forgive me? I understand now that i should bury my sin and not tell anyone, but what about what i have shared before? Does Allah's forgiveness depend on whether people know??Also i got married a while ago and in our country, we had a proper Nikah administered by a Maulvi and Mahr was exchanged. On the form, there were 3 options listed whether bride is virgin, divorced or widowed and virgin was marked for me. I was obviously in no position to reveal to anyone/ family/ or my future husband otherwise for that would ruin my future or any chance of redemption. Im scared to ask this but i need to know, if my Nikah was carried out properly as per the norm but 'virgin' was marked on the form for me, is my marriage valid? Im terrified to have this thought even occur to me, but for my peace of mind i need to know that i have closed this dark chapter and can move ahead.Also, on repeating similar acts after repenting from fornication, if i repent now, will Allah forgive me and wipe my sins? I am ashamed of my sins and i wish i could undo my past but i cant. Im 31 yrs old, is there hope for me?I read somewhere that if a non Muslim converts to Islam his previous sins are wiped out. If being a Muslim i repent from my past mistakes even if they are as ho rrible as fornication, will Allah accept my repentance and wipe away my sins?Pls keep my questions confidential and put them through to a reliable Islamic scholar and guide me pls.Rgrdsa