Wife was pregnant at time of marriage

19-7-2016 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. I was married to my wife 14 years ago. She was pregnant before our marriage and had an abortion, which I came to know of today, after our marriage. I do not know from whom she became pregnant. Is our marriage invalid or void? We had three children after the marriage. What is the status of the children? Are they illegitimate or not? I want to know whether we need to have a new marriage or not. May Allaah reward you.

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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 ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

According to the consensus of scholars, your children are legitimate and are attributed to you, and there is absolutely no aspect of doubt in this regard.

According to many scholars, the same applies to the validity of your marriage to their mother. However, if you can renew your marriage contract without difficulty or embarrassment, then it would be better to do so in order to avoid the scholarly difference of opinion.

It should be noted that abortion without a valid reason is prohibited, especially after the soul is breathed into the fetus (after four months of pregnancy) because the fetus becomes a living creature, and to terminate its life is legislatively considered murder (killing an innocent soul without any legal reason). If abortion was done after the fetus was formed (after forty days of pregnancy), then Diyah (blood money) is incumbent on the one who carried out the abortion. Please refer to fatwa 87467.

Allaah knows best.