Question:
I’m now married to a sharifah, but I’m not a sayyid. Problem is we married through wali hakim, not her own father (wali mujbir/nasab). She loves me and chose me as her husband… Her father doesn’t approve so we ran away and married. Is she legally my wife in shari’ah? Because people say to me that it is illegal for a non-sayyid to marry a sharifah plus with our marriage without wali nasab. It frightens me every moment.
Answer:
The first issue is who the wali can or cannot be. In her case the legitimate wali is her father (the wali nasab) and in his presence a wali hakim is invalid unless there is a valid excuse such as death or absence of all the hierarchy of paternal relatives in the well-known
order in which the father comes first. The second issue, mismatch/lack of suitability (kafa’a) would not be a cause of invalidity in case of approval on behalf of the legitimate wali; but in case of disapproval, as is the actual case here, it becomes a cause of invalidity. Thus the nikah is invalid (batil) from two perspectives, and Allah knows best.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
