MANCHESTER – Muslims seeking to find  future partners will be offered a suitable platform from February 2-March 24 in several locations across the UK, Asian Image reported on January 16.

The ‘Muslim Marriage Events’ British company has announced its plan for a group of new marriage events in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, and Newcastle.

The company has been successful in hosting single Muslim matrimonial services for the last eight years and have “helped many single people living in London, Manchester, and Birmingham find a suitable match.”

These events allow single Muslims to communicate with each other, according to the Islamic teachings, and interested family members can attend these gatherings.

“Marriage in Islam is about establishing a healthy family environment by welcoming the challenges and responsibilities that come with this relationship,” the official website explains.

The events are open to anyone aged between 21 and 45 who is single/divorced/widowed.

In Islam, marriage is a legal contract between a man and a woman. Both the groom and the bride are to consent to the marriage of their own free wills.

 

So Islamic marriages require acceptance of the groom, the bride and the consent of the custodian of the bride (wali). The wali of the bride is normally a male relative of the bride, preferably her father.

The wali can only be a free Muslim unless the bride is Christian or a Jew; in such cases, the bride should be given away by someone from her religious background.

A formal, binding contract – verbal or on paper – is considered integral to a religiously valid Islamic marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom and bride.

In Shari’ah, an Islamic Mahr differs from a marriage dowry or gift, in that it’s mandatory for a Muslim marriage and is paid by the groom to the bride. The money or possessions of the mahr are paid by the groom to the bride at the time of marriage for her exclusive use.

Islam is the second largest religion in the UK, with results from 2011 Census giving the British Muslim population in 2011 as 2,786,635, 4.4% of the total population.