Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalam O Alaikum

I want to know according to shariya that is it haram to love some one before marriage.

i am 17 and not yet married, but i deeply love some one. i have no secret relationships with him now. but i still love him a lot. is it haram to love some one before marriage. A feeling is a gift from Allah, we can not build it by our self. So please help me. i really love some one deeply, and i am not yet married. is it haram for me to have a feeling of love for some one who i am not married with. i do not have any secret relaionships with him. All what i have is a deep feeling of love for him. i really love him. please help me, and solve my problem. 

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Answer:

Love Permissible

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Dear and Beloved Sister, love and hate, like and dislike, joy and sorrow, smile and weep, etc. are natural emotions of mankind! What determines virtue and sin is what one says or does when one experiences these natural emotions!

To love or be attracted to someone is a natural emotion, and there is absolutely no sin if one loves another person; it is what one does after one has fallen in love with that person which would determine whether it would be counted as a virtue and a good deed in the Sight of Allah or a sin!

If one falls in love, and informs one’s guardians that they love so and so, and requests them to sanctify their love in the sacred bond of marriage so that they may love each other for the rest of their lives, it would be counted as a virtue and a good deed in the Sight of Allah Subhanah.

But if one falls in love, and strives to meet the person in secret and in private, and in their love transgress the boundaries of Allah Subhanah before they are united in the sacred bond of marriage; then indeed it would constitute a huge sin in the Sight of Allah Subhanah.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan