as salaamu alaykum respected scholars. During my recent trip this is Muslim country a question arose concerning the waiting period between the first and second marriage. My friend was in the mode of signing a marraige contract with his fiancee, when he noticed another girl that appealed to him. After the contract was signed and the marraige ceremony was being decided, my friend proposed to the second girl. An violent disagreement developed between the famlies of the first fiancee and the second fiancee. The question of the mahr had to be equal to first first fiancee and so on. The family of the first finacee demanded that my friend not marry the second fiancee for a year. Since there were heated disagreements, with my friend's family, the family of the first and second fiancee's, the marriage ceremony with the first fiancee was cancelled! The second fiancee's family proposed get a marriage contract signed and a marriage ceremony would commence days after the signing. The first fiancee threaten to file a lawsuit to prevent the marriage of the second fiancee. My questions are: Is there a waiting period between the first and second marriage ceremonies? Would the mahr for the second fiancee be same as with the first fiancee? Is it haram to propose to the first fiancee and a day later propose to the second girl? Jazakum Allahu Khayran

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is permissible for a man to marry two wives in one day, and it is permissible for him to get engaged to both of them on the same day because we are not aware of any Islamic evidence which prohibits this; for more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 91712.

Therefore, it is not an obligation that there should be an interval between the wedding ceremony of the first wife and the second wife.

Furthermore, a husband is not obliged to give an equal dowry to both of them; rather, he is only obliged to be just in spending on them and staying overnight with them as we clarified in Fatwa 91353.

Therefore, it should be known that the family of the first fiancée has no right to object to that man’s getting engaged with a second fiancée, and they have no right to prevent him from consummating the marriage with his first wife or his second wife, and they have no right in suing him over this matter.

Finally, we advise that man to be wise in dealing with the matter, and if delaying the consummation of the marriage with the second wife may be a solution in solving this problem, then we advise him to do so. 

Allaah Knows best.