A man committed zina with a disbelieving woman and fathered a daughter from her, then repented to Allah. If he convinces this disbeliever to enter Islam and make sincere repentance, should he advise her to marry him?

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The questioner: If you please, our master the Shaykh, I am the brother of Shaykh Abdullah, Abu Abd al-Rahman, from Aqaba.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner: He mentioned your conversation from two days ago, or the day before yesterday, regarding the topic.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: But he asked me, since I am in Amman, to speak with you, saying that according to your kind response, the matter is not permissible.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: But here, I feel that I have sinned on their side because I brought them with me, meaning the girl, who took my name and is a Muslim, and the mother is the same. So here we seek repentance, guidance, and the straight path, just like the mother, who is also many. So I must be the role model. Is it still not permissible for the relationship to continue, or for the marriage to remain valid?

The Shaykh: There is no marriage, my brother, may Allah guide you. This is fornication, not marriage. Where is the marriage? Marriage is through a Shari'ah contract, with the testimony of two just Muslim men, and with the permission of the girl's guardian, and so on, from the known matters in the Shari'ah. This is first. Second: If we assume, and we hope you are truthful, that you repented to Allah, and that the mother of the girl—and I do not say your wife—also repented to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), what do you do with the girl? I understood from your brother Abu Abd al-Rahman that you registered her in your book.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh: Listen, listen, my brother, may Allah guide you. You are done, your role is over, and now it is my turn. I understood that you registered her in your book, meaning she became your daughter, but she is not your daughter. She is the daughter of fornication, not the daughter of marriage. Suppose you repented, and your companion, the one you committed fornication with, truly repented with sincere repentance, let us assume that. How do you raise this girl, and how does she live with you, while you are still in a state of fornication? The matter is very serious and very serious. Therefore, I said that since she is now living in Britain, and she is far from you, and she does not know, perhaps she has taken a companion, and we have taken someone else, what will you do? So, as long as she is far from you, and her daughter is with her, it is easy for her to live, and she is legally the daughter of that woman, not your daughter. So she is called the daughter of such-and-such the British woman, and you do not say the daughter of such-and-such the Muslim Jordanian. No. Therefore, my advice was that you leave the fornicatress, or the mother of the girl, with her daughter in Britain, and write to her a statement saying that I realized I was a sinner with my Lord when I cohabited with you for these long years in an unlawful manner, and we fathered a daughter from this unlawful cohabitation. I understood that this life we lived, from the Islamic perspective, is not a marital life, but a life of zina and obscenity. Therefore, I repented to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and from today I have no relationship with you. Do as you please, and I advise you to repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) as I repented with sincere repentance. And if I am telling you, if you know for certain that she has believed and embraced Islam, it is not permissible for her to marry a British Christian, or a non-British Christian. Rather, she must first repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and second, marry a Muslim man. As for you, do not marry her, because here there are two cases. We assume the best of the two cases. The first case is that she repented, just as you say you repented. This girl is not your daughter. If you married a lawful wife, or renewed the contract with her, and were blessed with a son, this son will not be her brother. When this girl grows up, she will be a stranger to him, and he will be a stranger to her. The more you live together, the more complicated life will become. Therefore, as they say, strike the iron while it is hot. Now, the girl is six or seven years old, as I heard.

The questioner: Five.

The Shaykh: Five years old. Okay, so she is small now. Let her stay with her mother, and tell her, saying to her, this is a separation between me and you, and remind her of the reason. This is the religion, and this is the advice.

The questioner: May Allah reward you with good, my Shaykh. But there is one point I would like to raise, which is that if I give her the response as you advised me or guided me, she might say, well, if I convinced her to become Muslim, and the girl became Muslim, and she is with me as a Muslim, when she feels, she might apostatize from Islam and live, meaning because she became Muslim, she knew from Islamic law that she should be faithful to the girl, and so on. My presence here is to work and provide her with housing.

The Shaykh: Then she did not become Muslim for the sake of Allah; she became Muslim to marry you. If her Islam is for your sake, let her apostatize and go to Hell, and wretched is the destination. But if she truly became Muslim for Allah, not for your sake, then what is the solution so that she does not apostatize from her religion? What is the solution that you take her back as your wife? Fine, and what do you do with the girl? You are closing one eye and opening one, opening both eyes. What do you do with the girl?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Yes, I am asking you twice, three times, what do you do with the girl?

The questioner: With the girl, as for me, of course, I will try by all means, meaning.

The Shaykh: I do not want words without meaning. Tell me what you do, what you try, and you try a little. Practically, what did you do with her? Does she live with you and her mother?

The questioner: I will do my best for the girl to live with me.

The Shaykh: I did not understand. What is the problem? You forgot the problem I mentioned to you.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: Okay, open both eyes, not just one. You can say, "By Allah, she might apostatize from her religion." Well, if she apostatizes from her religion, you are not responsible for her.

The questioner: I try to encourage her. I try to calm myself and be the role model for her, meaning for the girl, that I am, for example.

The Shaykh: What is your name?

The questioner: My name is Hijazi.

The Shaykh: Hijazi. Okay, why don't you understand me? I am telling you, if the mother returns the girl to you, what do you do with her? You say she will live with you and you will raise her. You were blessed with a son, this son has become a young man, and she has become a girl outside of marriage. What do you do between them?

The questioner: By Allah, I will consult you.

The Shaykh: I answered you. Send to her and tell her, this is a separation between me and you. Marry a lawful marriage, and fear Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in yourself, and do not commit the sin a second time, because you will fall into what you fell into before.

The questioner : If Allah wills.

The Shaykh : And peace be upon you.

The questioner: Peace be upon you, thank you.

The Shaykh: And upon you peace.