Assalamu alaikum, brother if you can reply to this soon inshaAllah. there was a girl in my college. she was hindu. we were in touch, and now thru me she has accepted islam, and i want to get married to her, but for now she is in india and i stay in United Arab Emirates. and we dont want to enter into some haram relation and so we decided to get married. but the problem is she is in india and i m here. and we want to keep this marriage a secret becuase if her parents get to know about this, they will get her married to a hindu person. so for a while we are deciding to keep it a secret and now my question is i want to marry her ..she is in india and she does have any wali over there. so what is to be done and i cant travel to india as i m seeking my education here and she as well. brother please if you may reply to this as we are confused and i really dont know what to do. i so much dont want to enter into haram. jazakAllah khair, Abdurrahman

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.

First of all, you should know that it is unlawful for a Muslim man to establish such a relationship with a non-Mahram woman. Such relationships are Islamically forbidden and they lead to great disadvantages; for more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 81356.

As regards marrying this girl, if by your statement “through me, she has accepted Islam” you mean that she really embraced Islam, then it is permissible for you to marry her. In this case, the non-Muslims are not her guardians after she embraces Islam. So, her guardian is the Muslim judge or the Muslim community if she has no Muslim relative as a guardian.

Therefore, if she fears to be tempted in her religion or fear the possibility of her being married off to a non-Muslim man, then she should endeavor her utmost to avoid this. Hence, she may travel to the country where you live so that a Muslim judge will marry her off to you. Or you may travel to her country in order to conduct the marriage contract with her there before a Muslim judge, or that you appoint someone to conduct the marriage contract on your behalf before a Muslim judge.

However, if all this is not possible, then you should cut the relationship with her. Also, we advise her to resort to good Muslims in her country so that they would help her and stand on her side in order to make her firm on her religion and become a good Muslim.

For more benefit on the conditions of marriage, please refer to Fataawa 83629 and 88488.

Allaah Knows best.