Answer
Wa`alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Marriage is a sacred bond and in order for it to be valid, there are certain conditions that must be fulfilled.
2- A secret marriage without witnesses and in the way you mentioned is nothing more than illegitimate sexual intercourse.
In his response to your question, the eminent Muslim scholar and renowned Da`iyah, Sheikh `Abdel Khaliq Hasan Ash-Shareef, states:
Announcing the marriage is one of the conditions that make a marriage valid. The presence of witnesses to the marriage contract is another condition as well as the presence of the girl’s wali (guardian) in case she did not marry before.
Secret marriage is considered illegitimate sexual intercourse and marriage in the way you mentioned is nothing more than that.
Therefore, be careful, dear daughter, and do not indulge in this illegal relation.
We advise you to be keen on pleasing Allah the Almighty and to seek the halal way of marriage seeking the help of an imam in a nearby Islamic center, friends and relatives rather than indulging in an illegal relationship.
Allah Almighty knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.