Answer
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- It is allowed for her father to express his consent and declaring marrying her to you on the phone as long as there is an imam and two witnesses attending the contract.
2- You can also see her before marriage on the condition that you both show chastity and adhere to the Islamic teachings.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
There is nothing wrong in finding marriage partners through matrimonial sites as long as we do so by adhering to the Islamic ethics of interaction between men and women.
It is important for you to get the consent of her father. It is fine for him to express it through phone as long as it is witnessed by two persons-at both ends-in the presence of the imam solemnizing the marriage.
It is also important to document the contract and legalize it according to the laws of the country where you live.
Once the marriage contract is formalized, it is fine to do so initially through telephone contacts.
You are also allowed to see each other before making the final decision to marry. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) told one of his companions who was planning to marry a woman, “Go and see her before you make the decision for that is more conducive for you to bond with her.” (Ibn Majah)
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.