What is the ruling on marrying a woman from the People of the Book in our contemporary time?

The questioner : Among the things is that a man wants to contract a marriage, and he is living with a woman from the People of the Book and committing the crime of zina (unlawful sexual intercourse) with her.

The Shaykh : Allahu Akbar.

The questioner : Or he does not pray, or he delays, or he consumes forbidden things and other matters, then he repents to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), saying so, and wants to marry her. Is it permissible? Is it lawful for him to marry her? And if it is lawful: what is obligatory for him so that it becomes permissible for him to marry this woman from the People of the Book?

The Shaykh : I think you have been afflicted with the disease of jumping around. Why did you not stay with your first question: Is it permissible for a Muslim today to marry a woman from the People of the Book? After that, if the path opens for you to jump like a gazelle and ask about that open sinner who was living with this disbeliever in the life of lovers—yes, that is right—then that question comes. But I think you will not need it and will be relieved of directing such a question if you know my answer to the question you deviated from.
I draw attention, first of all, to the verse which is the reference for the scholars of the Muslims who say, and truly they say, that it is permissible for a Muslim to marry a woman from the People of the Book. When they say this word, they do not mean it in an absolute sense, but rather they mean the general meaning. It is like this pot here; it is dented because its bottom suggests—Allah the Exalted said: And according to what we hear and know, and you are living in those countries now, perhaps you are more knowledgeable than what we hear, it is very, very difficult for a disbelieving girl, especially if she is Polish or Dutch, to remain what? Chaste, meaning: pure. If that is the case, it is very, very rare, and the rare in such events has no value, meaning: A Muslim young man wants to marry a Dutch woman from the People of the Book. Does he mostly suspect that she has not associated with men before, or does he mostly suspect this association? Answer me with knowledge, what is the most likely?

The questioner : He has a broader idea.

The questioner : It is most likely that she has associated with men before, meaning, there are very few cases where she is chaste as you mentioned.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. So, it is not permissible for a Muslim today to marry a woman from the People of the Book, because the permission for marriage is conditioned on her being chaste, and this is rare, and the rare has no ruling as we said earlier. This is from one aspect.
If the event happens and the Muslim marries, as happens today a lot and a lot, because they took the issue absolute from every condition, meaning: It is permissible for a Muslim to marry a woman from the People of the Book, but most people do not know this condition explicitly stated in the Noble Qur'an. A Muslim is not allowed to marry a Muslim woman who commits zina, so how can he marry a woman from the People of the Book who commits zina?!

The questioner: Allahu Akbar.

The Shaykh : When I was about thirty or thirty-five years old, I got to know an officer from the old Turkish officers who were given the opportunity, due to the Islamic conquests that brought them to the lands of Austria, to be there. He told me that when they reached those lands, meaning they conquered them, and settled there for a period of time, then they were overcome and retreated. The point is: They knew that it was the custom of those lands that the midwife, the "dayyah," when she takes the fetus from the mother, looks: if it is a girl, she breaks her virginity with her finger in advance.
All present: Allahu Akbar.

The Shaykh : Why? So that it does not cause a problem when she reaches the age of marriage and the young man marries her and finds her virginity broken. It is not because she associates with lovers, but because her virginity was broken from the moment she fell from her mother's womb. This is how far the misguidance of these people has reached, that you do not find a virgin there. Either you do not find a virgin because she mixed with men and associated with them in sin, or she is from the rare ones whose virginity was broken when she fell from her mother's womb. For this reason, it is not permissible for a Muslim to marry a woman from the People of the Book today; because the woman from the People of the Book was holding on to inherited morals. It is true that she is an associate of partners with Allah as Allah the Exalted said: , but there is something of honor among them, something of jealousy, as they were in the early times, the time of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, the time of the Arabs. But now, Europe has gone out of its religion, not only in its belief, but also in its behavior, in every aspect of its life. And so, if a Muslim happens to marry a Christian or Jewish woman and she is, meaning, a virgin, it is not permissible for the Muslim to marry her, even if this condition is verified, if it can be verified. I think this can be verified, but it cannot be verified, because perhaps her virginity is broken and then the doctor certifies that she is a virgin.

The questioner : Abu Malik sends his greetings to you, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : And to you and to him be peace. Does he not want to come?

The questioner : No

The Shaykh : The point is: If we suppose that he married a virgin woman from the People of the Book, it is also not permissible to marry her. Why? Because I observe something I deduce, not like the first matter. The first matter is stated in the verse: I am saying now: Even the chaste one in this time is not permissible for a Muslim to marry if she is Jewish or Christian. Why? Because the Christians and the Jews, as a people or a nation, each of the Jews and the Christians has their customs, their traditions, their civilization, their culture, which many Muslim youth have been deluded by, due to their contact with them in their own homes. So, if this youth returns to the lands of Islam and is not influenced by those customs and traditions, that is a favor from Allah upon them. But as for the women who are Jewish or Christian, when they bring them here, to the lands of Islam, their situation today is different from the time of the revelation of the Noble Verse: How is that? You know from our previous research on the impermissibility of traveling to the lands of disbelief and the prohibition of being citizens with the mushrikin (those who associate partners with Allah) and living with them, and the wisdom behind that. On the contrary, completely: The Wise Lawgiver ordered the Muslims who embraced Islam to migrate from the lands of disbelief to the lands of Islam. Why? Because he will adapt to Islamic customs and be imprinted by them, so he will come out not only in his thought, where he testifies "that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," but also in his behavior, his morals, and his manners, he will be imprinted with the mark of the Islamic society. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed to this reality in his strange saying: He (peace and blessings be upon him) points with this hadith to the disbelieving captives who fall captive to the Muslim army, then they are distributed among the individuals of the army. This one is given to an old man who uses him, or a young man, or a woman, or a girl, and so on. They are taken as captives to the lands of the Muslims, and there everyone takes his share. The captive lives as a slave, but his slavery among the Muslims is better than his freedom in the lands of disbelief. And so we found in Islamic history many of these disbelievers who were brought as captives in chains and then became slaves to the masters of the Muslims. We find among them those who became the great Tabi'un (the generation after the Companions), and the great scholars of the Muslims. Among them is al-Hasan al-Basri, and among them is Abu Hanifa, for example, whose father was, meaning, a Zoroastrian, and so on. What made them, after they became slaves, to become Muslims first, and then become masters? It is that they lived Islam, so they were amazed by Islamic life, Islamic morals, and Islamic belief, so they embraced Islam willingly, not by force.
Now, the situation has completely reversed, unfortunately. The Islamic society now does not have that influence it had in the early time. So when the Jewish or Christian wife comes and lives in an Islamic society, you may find women who display their adornment more than her, and you may find, in her opinion at least, more open sinfulness and lewdness than what she saw there. So what will make her conform to Islam? There is no applied Islam. There is Islam in thought, in religion, and Islam is scattered and lost among its strangers and its individuals, and so on.
Thus, among the wisdom of Islam when it commanded or granted a dispensation for a Muslim man to marry a Jewish or Christian woman is to bring her into the path of Islam through marriage to a Muslim. Therefore, as part of the completion of this wisdom, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) did not permit a Muslim woman to marry a Jew or a Christian. This is because men are protectors and maintainers of women. Just as it is obligatory for a Muslim to live with his wife in a Muslim society, so it is the norm for a disbeliever to live in a disbeliever's society. If he marries a Muslim woman, it means that over time, this Muslim woman will become a disbeliever, and her offspring as well. This is part of the aforementioned wisdom: she will raise them with a Western upbringing, a non-Islamic upbringing. Therefore, we find that this problem has occurred, particularly in America, when a Muslim there marries an American woman and lives there; the children, over time, become [names like] George, or the one named Tanius, and so on, while their father is Muslim. Therefore, it is not permissible for a Muslim to marry a Christian woman for two reasons:
The first reason is that the chaste women [mentioned in the verse] are lacking, as we have explained.
The second reason is that she will raise her children according to the Western methodology, and the man will not be able to impose his own way and the Islamic method of raising children. If you have understood this, I think you have received the answer to your question?

The questioner : May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh: All right, Professor Ali, it is now a quarter to eleven, what Allah willed.

The questioner: Continue, our Shaykh. - The students laugh.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: Our Shaykh, on this same topic, the system in the lands of disbelief is that the children follow the mother. So if the woman apostatizes or abandons her husband, he cannot obtain [custody of them].

The Shaykh: The child remains there.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: This does happen, this is correct, yes.