I am a non-Muslim woman planning to marry a Muslim man. However, we are having a dispute over plans for children. Is it set in the Muslim religion that the children have to be in the Muslim religion, or can they be raised in under the Catholic beliefs?

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.

In Islamic religion, there is nothing that prohibits a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman provided she is chaste. But if one thinks that it is very probable that the children be brought up on a religion other than Islam, or if the wife stipulates that they be raised in that way, it is not permissible to marry this woman. As it is confirmed with absolute evidences that Islam is the religion of the truth, and it is the seal of religions.

Anyone who practices any religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted from him.

Allah makes it compulsory on the father to educate his children according to Islam, preserve them and protect them from anything that could be a cause for them to enter hellfire, which is the fate of those who die as non-Muslims.

Allah says: "O you who believe! Ward off from yourselves and your families a Fire (Hell) whose fuel is men and stones, over which are (appointed) angels stern (and) severe, who disobey not, (from executing) the Commands they receive from Allâh, but do that which they are commanded." (At-Tahrim 66:6)

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 88106.

Allah knows best.