Mufti Menk – Parents promised to marry me off to someone since I was a child!

			Assalamu alaikum some people are still promising their little babies to the babies of other people
saying that when they grow older, these two will be married. And then when they grow older, they
want to force them to get married. Even though the two do not want to get married, or one of the two
doesn't want to be married. Let's remember this is prohibited, it is haram to force someone to marry
against his or her own will. So when we're children, people say, Oh, my son will marry your
daughter, you might say it in passing as a joke. Or you might just say it, I have heard that. And
I've said, You know what, let them grow up, when they grow up, they will decide what they want to
		

			do, if they still would like that to happen. Alhamdulillah if they would not like that to happen, we
will support them. And we will stand by them, by all means, and we will make sure we fulfill the
right that we have to fulfill for them, given by Allah subhanho wa Taala. This is something that is
very, very disturbing. It is still happening in some countries, and I receive mails, emails from a
lot of people still saying, you know what I was promised off to my cousin, I was promised off to
someone. Now I'm much older, I really don't want this to happen. And I'm being forced and so on. And
they say they will commit suicide. Sometimes they say they will divorce the other members of the
		

			same family married into the other family as a result of you not marrying where they want you to
marry. The How will our La quwata illa billahi Li Navin May Allah protect us all. May Allah forgive
us all a strong federal law of him, I seek the forgiveness of Allah from such May Allah subhanho wa
Taala protect our children, these are your children, stand up for them. And make sure that you have
actually fulfilled what Allah has asked you to fulfill. You cannot just promise your child when the
child was little, and said, You know what? This child is going to marry that child. And then when
you grow older, and the children have really grown apart from each other, and you still want to
		

			shove them together. That's not Islam. May Allah forgive us. I wonder what response we're going to
give to Allah on the Day of Judgment, if we force this type of union, and do you know the
destruction that this is causing on earth is unacceptable? May Allah subhanho wa Taala forgive us
and guide us? Apalachicola was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah.