Excerpt from blog by Dr. Mariam Sheibani (July 16, 2024)
Over the past ten days, Muslims have been engaged in a debate about the legitimacy of secret marriages, prompted by a young daʿi who propositioned a divorced single mother for a secret marriage.
Secret marriage is a topic about which I have done a lot of research, writing, and community intervention. The online debate wasn’t the only discussion of secret marriage I’ve had this month; I was also contacted by the chair of a mosque board who discovered their Imam had engaged in a secret marriage; a broken-hearted wife who learnt that her husband of 25+ years was several years into a second secret marriage; a young officiant who realized that he had unwittingly performed a secret marriage; and a concerned community member whose relative had fallen victim to a secret arrangement and was concerned about the lack of community leadership addressing the issue.
Several years ago, it became apparent to me that secret marriages had become a widespread problem in the Muslim community, one about which a lot of misinformation and problematic assumptions circulated. I spent four years writing a paper assessing the legal, moral, and social dimensions of secret marriages, which was initially commissioned by the Hurma Project.
And yes, you read that right: four years – that’s how long it takes to do a deep dive into classical fiqh sources on the topic, draft the paper, share my research at four conferences and integrate the comments I received, elicit feedback from more than a dozen ulama and academics, go through the journal review process in which four reviewers commented on the paper, all while rethinking, revising, and polishing at every stage…{Read More}
