Asselamu Aleikum sheik, am asking THIS question on behalf on my friend. Well, Two Muslim couples committed zina yesterday night. They knew that it was haraam and forgot to repent it and then they got married today morning in halal way. After 3 weeks, wife got pregnant. Right now, I have 3 more questions 1. Does the marriage is valid or not? 2. Is it possible to repent after marriage? 3. Can we say that she got pregnant with zina 4. If this marriage is in valid, he can be able to leave her without any divorce and he can get married another woman with the halal way. 5. If this marriage is in valid, don’t you think most people are living like this because they don’t know their marriage is valid or not? 6. If it is in valid, why those non-believers marriage is valid after they reverted to Islam? They don’t need to renew their marriage contract? Because most of them they got married with boy and girl friends it was illicit relationship. Thanks

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.

Zina (fornication or adultery) is a grave major sin which Allaah detests, and He definitely warned against it and repelled people from committing it and forbade any means that leads to it.

Therefore, both the man and the woman who committed Zina are obliged to sincerely repent to Allaah. The fact that that marriage had taken place does not prevent from making repentance. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 86527.

As for the validity of the marriage of a man to the woman with whom he had committed Zina before both of them make repentance and before making sure that she is not pregnant, is a controversial issue among the scholars which we have clarified in Fataawa 89292 and 83176 in which we mentioned that they are not obliged to renew the marriage contract according to the view of scholars who consider that their marriage is valid.

As regards the pregnancy that occurred in such a case, then we do not know for sure whether it is from Zina or from the legitimate relationship. What is important is that if the child is born six months after the date of the legitimate relationship, it is considered a legitimate child. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 147105.

On the other hand, the marriage whose validity is contested among the scholars, has the effects of a valid marriage, like that the separation in such a marriage must be either by divorce or by an Islamic judge invalidating that marriage. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 92478.

As regards the marriages of the non-Muslims, then the majority of the jurists are of the opinion that they are valid, and this is the opinion that we adopt here in Islamweb and consider to be the preponderant view. So, what the non Muslims believe to be a marriage [according to their religion and customs] is permissible to approve as stated by the scholars.

Allaah Knows best.