Hello,I am 47 y/o female who is seeing muslim man. When I first met him I never thought our friendship would develop into more. I have no children and have never been married. He says he is a single father I have never met his children or been to his home. I do not practice a specific religion but open to learn Islam. I do not not want to be led astray and want to do the right thing. I now know that it is forbidden to date. I am not a part of his family life and feel left out. But I want to respect myself and also his way of life. But I do not want to be any one's fool. I am willing to put in the work to learn. Please help me to make the right decision. I am 47 y/o never married or had children because I truly believe that God had someone special for me and I have just met him and he happens to be Muslim. What should I do is being his wife even possible or should I walk away? Thank 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.

First of all, we appreciate your trust in us and you writing to us. We ask Allaah to make the truth clear to you and allow you to follow it and to make falsehood clear to you and allow you to avoid it, and we ask Him to bless you with a husband with whom you find happiness.

According to the Islamic Sharee’ah (law), a Muslim man is permitted to marry only a Muslim woman or a chaste woman from the People of the Book, i.e. a Christian or a Jew. We have previously clarified this in Fatwa 89206.

Therefore, it is not possible for this Muslim man to marry you as long as you are in this state - not following any heavenly-revealed religion. We believe that you have a sound mind, which we hope will guide you to the ultimate goodness, and the ultimate goodness is embracing Islam. Islam is the final religion and Allaah will not accept any other religion from anyone. Allaah says in the Quran (what means): {And whoever desires other than Islam as religion-never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.} [Quran 3:85]

Hence, we advise you to hasten to embrace Islam so that you will be happy in this life and in the Hereafter. For information on Islam, please refer to Fataawa 81979, 88906, 886270and 86091.

If you embrace Islam, this will be the best decision in your whole life, and then this Muslim man can marry you, and by doing so, you achieve two advantages. Please refer to Fataawa 83629 and 88488.

We wish you all the best.

Allaah Knows best.