Engaged to a man whom she did not see or meet
24-6-2007 | IslamWeb
Question:
im girl & proposed by a man whom i completely dont know,he is my far relative,i have never seen him,and he has never seen me too,the wedding will be after 2 months,he lives in another country,i know that islam encourages the expected couples to see each other before marriage,but our case is different we cant meet bcoz we r far from each other,i would like to keep intouch with him coz i want to feel comfortable with him when i first time see him, so tell me wat should i do best. should i communicate with him or i stay queit untill the day we get married? he has seen my pic,and i have seen his..ive been getting information thru my uncles who know him well that he s very gud person, but thts not enough, i need to know him better first before geting married. pls help me i need ur reply soon. i want to know wat does the religion say about this matter
Answer:
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.
The religious ruling according to the Sunnah in this matter is that both the fiancé and the fiancée should see each other before marriage, as clarified in Fataawa 88012 and 81551.
Therefore, we advise you to clarify to your parents that it is religiously permissible for the fiancé to see his fiancée and vice-versa, and that there is a religious and worldly benefit for both of them as this makes them inclined to each other. Hence, you should ask them (your parents) to organize for you a meeting with him with the presence of one of your Mahaarim (i.e. plural of Mahram, who is a person whom one is permanently prohibited from marrying due to suckling, marital, or blood relations).
However, we do not advise you to contact your fiancé by phone even though this is permissible if it is for a correct and permissible purpose. This may lead to some prohibitions, like speaking to him in a soft voice or talking about something which is prohibited. The fiancé remains a marriageable man until he conducts the marriage contract with his fiancée. In addition to this, speaking to him on the phone does not achieve the purpose of looking at the fiancée which is something religiously permitted in order to find out how beautiful she is.
Allaah Knows best.