The Marriage Contract in Lands of Disbelief Without a Guardian or Witnesses

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This is a questioner from the lands of disbelief who says: A Muslim man and a Muslim woman in the lands of disbelief contracted a marriage with a woman, without a guardian and without witnesses, because they did not find anyone who knew the rulings of marriage except this woman. The question is: Are they to be confirmed in this previous contract?

Answer:
This is to be presented to the Shari'ah court. They go to the Shari'ah court, and the court looks into the contracts. We do not deal with contracts; this is the jurisdiction of the courts. However, in the lands of the disbelievers, there is no land that lacks an Islamic center, nor a community of Muslims that lacks one. So if he goes to the Islamic center and contracts the marriage with the head of the center, the contract is valid, because the head of the center in the lands of disbelief is in the position of the one in authority in the lands of the Muslims, acting as his deputy.