Assalaamu alaykum. I am a happily married woman with four children, praise be to Allaah. Lately, however, waswas (devilish whisperings) on wether my mariage is valid or not has affected my life after I have heard some fatwas and hadiths. I committed zina (fornication) with my husband 14 years ago and, we soon (mid june 2000) decided to get married in secret, because we did not want this kind of relationship, not knowing that repentance and permission of the wali (guardian) were some of the conditions. A few days later however, we decided to tell our parents that we wanted to get married with their consent, and they did perform our nikah (wedding) in mid July 2000, and we then had a baby on the April 2, 2001. Only Allaah knows that I regret my mistake and I ask Allaah for forgiveness every day. My husband and I pratice our deen and are trying to teach our kids their beautiful religion. My question is the following: I do not know whether my pregnancy occured before the secret nikah or not, and is performing this secret nikah a repentance on our part? Is my marriage valid? Please help me because waswas is affecting our life. If we need to do another nikah, then what can we do because our family lives in another country? May Allaah 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.

First of all, you should know that repentance of your sin is not attained by merely getting married; rather, you should fulfill all the due conditions of repentance as underlined in fatwa 83629. However, that the repentant abstains from committing the unlawful and hastens to get married indicates that the due conditions of repentance are mostly fulfilled.

Undoubtedly, your child is attributed to your husband because he was born after six months of marriage; please refer to fatwa 122443.

Muslim jurists held different scholarly views regarding the ruling on the marriage of an adulterous couple before repentance and before confirming that the woman is not pregnant; please refer to fatwa 83176. Hence, your marriage is valid based on the scholarly view suggesting the validity of such a marriage. You should also know that the person suffering from waswaas (obsessive whispering) is entitled to follow the easiest and less stringent scholarly view in case of matters open for scholarly difference of opinion so as to avoid any hardship or difficulty incurred by such waswaas, as highlighted in fatwa 140014.

Based on that, you should resume your life with your husband as if nothing had happened and not allow Satan to disturb your life and cause you distress by means of such waswaas.

Allaah knows best.