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A girl gives her address to a person who wants to propose to her

Question

A girl gave her address to a young man in order to come and propose to her. She did so without her family's knowledge. What is the Sharee‘ah ruling?

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

Marriage is one of the purposes of Islam since it safeguards lineage and protects honor. In Islam, however, ends do not justify means. In other words, when the end is noble and legitimate, the means must be also noble and legitimate.

When a girl gives her address to a young man for a noble end which is marriage, the means must also be noble and legitimate. For example, she can give it to one of that man's Mahram women. It is impermissible that she gives him the address through an illegitimate means, such as meeting him in private and similar prohibited ways. This is necessary to block the means that may lead to unfavorable results.

Generally, the girl must resort to legitimate means in order to reach the legitimate ends. At the same time, she is required to avoid all prohibited means.

Allaah Knows best.

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