Marriage with Women of the People of the Book in Western Countries

Abstract

This article addresses an important jurisprudential issue: marriage to a Christian woman in Western countries. The relevance of this topic has grown due to the increasing number of such marriages in recent decades, following the settlement of large numbers of Muslims in various European and Western countries. The coexistence between social populations with, Muslims, and other immigrants has led to developments that necessitate a realistic jurisprudential analysis, concerning mixed marriages between Muslims and Christian women. This article aims to investigate this issue in three chapters. The first chapter examines the varied positions of jurists regarding the ruling on marriage to biblical women (Jews and Christians), which are based on three opinions: permissibility, abhorrence, and prohibition. The second chapter, discusses the factors that led changing the fatwa on this issue, and the impact of time, place, and circumstances on it. Finally, the third chapter discusses the rulings on permissibility and on changing fatwas, whether transitioning from permissibility to abhorrence or from permissibility to prohibition.