The Ruling of Marriage to Non-Muslim Females

1. Although marriage to women of the Ahl al-Kitāb is in principle permissible, there exists a considerable juristic difference of opinion on the exact parameters for determining who those Ahl al-Kitāb are with whose women marriage is permitted.

2. The school of Islamic law to which Muslims of this part of the world generally subscribe, which is the Shāfiʿī madhhab, defines the Ahl al-Kitāb with whose women marriage is permitted as—

2.1. those whose ancestry is known to go back to one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel;

2.2. or those non-Israelites whose first entry into either Judaism or Christianity is known to have happened before that religion suffered naskh (abrogation) and taḥrīf (corruption).

3. The above criterion leaves an extremely narrow margin for the possibility of marriage with the Ahl al-Kitāb in our situation.

4. It has been the consistent policy of the Ulamā of the Cape, going back to long before the founding of the Muslim Judicial Council, to keep the door closed on interfaith marriages.

5. This policy is essentially rooted in the Maqāṣid (higher objectives) of the Sharīʿah, chief among which is ḥifẓ al-Dīn (the preservation of the Faith).

6. The advantages that observance of this policy has had for the preservation and survival of Muslims in an adverse minority situation are self-evident, as are the disastrous and detrimental effects of not observing a similar approach.

7. In line with this policy, the MJC neither solemnizes, nor facilitates the solemnization of interfaith marriages.

والله تعالى أعلم

And Allah knows best.