Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu waRahmatullahi 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:
There is nothing wrong with concluding marriage between the two Eids.
Answering your question, the General Iftaa’ Department in Jordan, states the following:
Getting married after Eid Al-Fitr is lawful and recommended during Shawwal. The reprehensibility of concluding the marriage contract or consummating the marriage between the two Eids has no foundation in Islamic Shariah, as this is one of the beliefs of the Jahiliyyah (the days and traditions of ignorance).
Rather, some Muslim scholars recommend people to conclude marriage contracts during the month of Shawwal i.e. between the two Eids.
Urwah (may Allah have mercy on his soul) reported that Aishah said, “The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), married me in Shawwal and consummated the marriage with me in Shawwal, and which of his wives was more favorable to him than me?”
He added, “‘Aishah used to recommend her female relatives to conclude their marriage during this month.” (Muslim)
An-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on his soul) said in his commentary on the hadith of Aishah:
“It indicates that it is recommended to conclude the marriage contract and to consummate the marriage in Shawwal. Fellow scholars say that this recommendation is based on this hadith by which Aishah wanted to refute the ignorant belief of Jahiliyyah, and what some of the common folk still believe today – that it is reprehensible to conclude the marriage contract or to consummate the marriage in Shawwal. This is false and baseless. It is one of the remnants of the Jahiliyyah, when they used to be superstitious about that because of the connotations of the name of Shawwal which related to the drying up of the camel’s milk and the lifting of its tail.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.