Assalamu Alaikum, i am a 23 yr old muslim student, who is trying to get married and start a halal life and to refrain from my troubled past, but the biggest issue is i had a child out of wedlock here in the U.S. with a christian woman about 5yrs ago, and now my son is 4. i prolonged marriage with her for so long because i wasn't sure i loved her enough to do so, but now i see my son getting older and want to marry her so that my son can be raised as a good muslim, and now the dilemma is that i heard i am unable to marry her since she isn't and wasn't a chaste woman now nor when i met her, and she also isn't willing to convert to islam, i also heard i should have nothing to do with my son and that he shouldn't even have my name, so now i am so confused and really in need of some guidance( and just so i can have the best answer for my situation before i met her she had 2 abortions but she didn't want to abort when she carried my child and also my son has a muslim name and my last name except that she is the one who has him and i live in different state then where they live, and the plan was for when we got married they would move to the state where i live but currently im living with my parents, she also accepts the fact that my son is muslim and she even goes to his school and tells his teachers that he cant eat pork etc., so she is sincere) please help me with this complex situation i really want to get married and live my life in the way of the sunnah, thank you so very much may Allah reward you

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.

Indeed, you did well by trying to get married and live a chaste life; may Allaah facilitate this matter for you. However, you are obliged to repent to Allaah for committing Zina (fornication); for more benefit on the conditions of repentance, please refer to Fataawa 87903 and 86527.

In fact, the matter is as you heard that it is not permissible for a Muslim to marry a woman from the People of the Book unless she is chaste as clarified in Fataawa 82067 and 81758.

The same thing applies to the son born out of an illegal relationship (Zina), that he is not traced back to the fornicator or adulterer but he is traced back to his mother according to the view of the majority of the scholars . For more benefit in this regard, please refer to Fatwa 89082. Nonetheless, the Hanafi School of jurisprudence is of the view that if the fornicator or adulterer requests to trace the child back to him, then the child is attributed to him. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 97254 and 84788.

Finally, you should look for a pious woman to marry, who would help you in your worldly and religious matters.

Allaah Knows best.