Q. A man and a woman got married legally a year ago, without informing their families. They continued to live with their respective families and worked on their parents until they agreed to the marriage. But none of their parents is aware that the marriage has taken place. They are afraid to tell them. Can they keep the matter a secret and go through the marriage ceremony again?
M., Makkah
A. There is no harm in going through the marriage ceremony again for a valid reason. This happens often in minority Muslim communities. Where a community does not have a legal status, what happens is that the marriage is first done in a Registrar’s office. If there are enough witnesses present, then the formalities of such a marriage meet the requirements of Islamic marriage. But then most people go to a mosque or an Islamic center to have the marriage contract done again. They feel that this is the appropriate way, and they receive a certificate of marriage from both the Registrar’s office and from the mosque.
In this case, there are two reasons for the re-run of the marriage. The first is that it will spare the couple any potential trouble with their families. The other is that it will meet the requirements of schools of law which do not consider the first marriage valid. Only the Hanafi school of law considers a marriage contract in which the woman acts for herself valid. The other three schools consider it invalid. Therefore, a rerun of the marriage now will make it valid according to all schools. This is an important reason for redoing the marriage contract.
Having said that, I should add that it was wrong of the couple to do what they did. Marriage is an important relationship which should not be trifled with. It establishes a family. Therefore, it is important that the families of the two partners are involved. Islam honors the woman by making the presence of her father or guardian a requirement for the validity of the marriage.
Midmorning prayer
Q. What is the difference, particularly with regard to time, between Ishraaq and Chaast prayers, and what reward is attained by these prayers?
Abd Al-Ghafoor, Riyadh
A. I do not know of any prayer by either of these names. There is simply no such prayer to be offered as a duty or voluntarily. However, the first one, Ishraaq, means a prayer at or after sunrise. We should remember that prayer at sunrise is strongly discouraged, until the sun has risen well into the sky. Scholars of old times compared it to the length of a spear. The other name, Chaast, is not an Arabic word and I do not know what it means.
What we have is a morning prayer with the name of Dhoha. Its time stretches from early morning, after the sun has risen well into the sky, to shortly before dhuhr prayer, when the sun is at the highest point in the sky. It is strongly recommended. It may be offered at any time, in 2-8 rakaahs, which are normally made short. Its reward is very rich.
The Prophet says that we have to pay a charity for every one of 360 joints in our bodies, every day. Some of his companions wondered who could afford that. The Prophet said: "Every time you glorify God or praise Him counts as a charity, and if you remove harmful objects from the road, it counts as a charity. You may compensate for all that by offering two rakaahs at Dhoha."
In another Hadith, the Prophet quotes God as saying that if one offers four rakaahs at the beginning of the day, He will take care of him for the rest of the day. You see, the reward is rich and immediate.
