Can you have two nikahs

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Trending 'One last heist When asked what his wife thinks of his decision, he said, "My wife's a woman, so you know, most of the times women don't like it, but she accepts it.

She understands that this is our religion. This is what Allah has allowed for us, so she definitely accepts it. It is not that difficult for men like Issa to find second wives. Several Muslim matrimonial websites have sprung up worldwide catering to men seeking polygamous relationships and to women who are open to such arrangements. A producer with The Fifth Estate registered himself on two websites and was soon communicating with women who were interested in being a second wife.

One of the women who expressed an interest in a polygamous marriage was Haleemah, a Toronto-area resident and a convert to Islam. Haleemah is single and divorced with two adult children. She said she would accept a polygamous marriage but with conditions.

Asked whether the illegality of polygamy was a concern for her, she said while she was aware it was illegal, "in some situations, I think some imams are willing to help. Many of the women who told The Fifth Estate their husbands had taken second wives pointed out a number of imams in Ontario who are known to assist Muslim women like Haleemah in finding husbands who are already married, and who help match men like Issa to aspiring second wives. The Fifth Estate wanted to put the rumours that were circulating in Toronto about some imams to the test and sent a married Muslim man undercover.

Of the six imams who were approached, two declined to perform a nikah ceremony for a married man. Two congratulated the undercover for his decision to take a second wife and recommended other Ontario imams whom they said would perform the nikah.

Two imams agreed to perform the nikah ceremony for the married undercover. The second imam, Aly Hindy, serves as the imam at the Salaheddin mosque in the east end of Toronto. He offered to supply the two male witnesses required by Islamic law. After showing the undercover a copy of the marriage certificate he would receive, Hindy provided his own interpretation of Canadian law. If you register, then it is illegal, because you are already married.

In an interview with The Fifth Estate , CBC's Habiba Nosheen showed Hindy the undercover video of him agreeing to conduct a second marriage for a man who was already married and asked him for his reaction. Sue me. Let them sue me.

We follow the law because we're not registering a second marriage," he said. When asked to explain why he endorses the practice of polygamy in violation of Canadian law, he insisted the law should be changed. When pressed for an explanation, Hindy described it as a "garbage law," and said "eventually we're going to recognize that there's not enough men for each woman. Plus you also lose some number of men to homosexual marriages. Nosheen suggested the law will not change because people chose not to respect it, to which Hindy said, "OK, the law cannot be enforced.

Toronto lawyer Sabha Hazai, who sits on the board of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, is spearheading a project aimed at educating Muslim women on their legal rights when getting married. She said the current law lacks teeth. How do they want to address polygamy? This is because Islam places great virtue and emphasis on the institution of marriage and also culturally, many people feel that they have not been truly married until they have had the Nikah ceremony performed.

Unfortunately, what most people do not know is that having just an Islamic Nikah does not create a legally recognised marriage with the couple still classed as a non-married couple in the eyes of English law. Therefore, should the marriage break down, the parties to that marriage will not have the same protection of the law as they would have if they had a Registry marriage performed. Most Muslims, unwisely, think that a Nikah is sufficient and are happy to live that way in the UK.

While that is true, and a fact frequently cited by Muslim men, the fact which is not frequently cited is that for a man to have more than one wife, there must be a good reason and there must be perfect equality in treatment of the wives — this is something which is rarely achieved with having just one spouse, never mind two.

View product. The practice title for family lawyers Published on behalf of the International The other point which I must remind readers about is that bigamy or polygamy in the UK is actually an offence, although you may argue that if a man marries one woman by way of Nikah and Registry and a second wife by way of Nikah only, there is no polygamy in the eyes of English law.

Quite often, the first wife does not know, and quite often, the second wife is brought into the UK and married here secretly which means firstly, they have none of the rights a married couple can expect to have and secondly, due to the clandestine nature of the whole marriage, she is often neglected and forced to live life as a second class citizen, not to mention the burden on the state in supporting her thorough benefits and housing.

Well, the simple answer is that there must be a concerted effort within our communities to educate Muslims that whenever they get married, as well as the Nikah they should also have the Registry ceremony performed. Unfortunately, at this moment in time, both of these things have to be done separately with only a few mosques in the UK registered to perform both Islamic Nikah and civil Registry marriages.

There must also be a change in the legislation so that the Marriage Act is updated to recognise Islamic Nikah and give Muslim married couples the full protection of the law.

On 26 June , I was fortunate enough to be invited by my trusted colleague and mentor, Aina Khan, family solicitor and Head of the Islamic Department at Duncan Lewis Solicitors, to a round table meeting at the House of Lords to discuss unregistered marriages in minority faith groups. Aina has been working hard on this issue with the final aim of changing the law so that there is equality in all registered marriages, especially concerning marriages in minority faith groups.

We at Stradbrokes Solicitors are behind this project and will be doing whatever we can to drive this forward. Keep following my weekly blog for more details on this including a survey coming soon to collect data on this issue.