Salam, I hope this message finds you well. I have a question to ask about the validity of my marriage contract. I have lived with my stepfather since i was 2 years old and only met my biological father at the age of 15 and since then we have had a good relationship and stayed in close contact. My biological father also has a son (21 years old) who I have also met. My family have a bad relationship with my biological father and dislike him very much so at the time of my marriage they refused to involve him in the nikkah process. Once i informed him, he was acceptant of the idea and agreed to meet my potential husband. My mum's family did not want him involved so when i went to court i was tricked into lying and telling the judge that my biological father's place of residence is not known to me, and the same for his son (my brother) and my uncles and so on. The judge made it clear that he would not be my wali if this information was not true and so the responsibility became mine. Therefore, the judge was made my wali and the nikkah was done with his approval under the conditions of me not knowing my biological father or his son or his other family. Does this lie invalidate my marriage?

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If your mother's family has urged you to falsely claim that you do not know where your father, brother and family members were, then they were very wrong, and you should not have obeyed them about this, especially that the matter is related to marriage.

The most important condition for the marriage contract to be valid is the presence of the guardian, so the marriage contract is not valid without his presence and consent, according to the preponderant view of the scholars, and this is the view of the majority of the scholars Fiqh, contrarily to the view of Abu Haneefah.

For more benefit on the conditions of the marriage contract, please refer to Fatwa 83629.

It is more appropriate for your father to conduct your marriage contract.

If the case is as you mentioned in the question, that your marriage was conducted without his consent, then it is a void marriage.

So you have to separate from your husband either by divorce or by the annulment of the marriage.

If there are any children from this marriage, then they should be traced back to their father as he married you while believing that the marriage contract was valid.

Now, if you wish to renew the marriage contract, then you must conclude it while fulfilling the conditions of a correct marriage mentioned in the above Fatwa.

Your marriage is not valid and there is no consideration of the ruling of the judge with the claim that your guardian was absent (or his whereabouts were unknown) while it is not the case.

Asnal-Mataalib authored by Zakariyah al-Ansaari from the Shaafi'i School reads:

“If she was married off in the absence of her guardian, whereas he is close to the country at the time of the contract, even with his claim that he is near...then her marriage contract is not concluded because the marriage by the judge is not valid with the presence of the personal guardian.”

Allah knows best.