Question:

What do the scholars and experts of shari’ah say regarding performing Nikah in the month of Shawwal? There are some people who say that it is makruh (disliked).

Answer:

All perfect praise is for Allah ﷻ, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah ﷻ, and that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is His Messenger.

Performing Nikah in the month of Shawwal is not makruh, rather in shar’iah it will be considered as mustahab (commendable).

The Mother of the believers, Sayyidah A’isha narrated: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ married me in the month of Shawwal and consummated the marriage in Shawwal. From all of the wives of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ none had the station that I was blessed with in front of Him ﷺ”.

After mentioning this hadith Imam Nawawi said: “Marriage and the consummation of marriage in the month of Shawwal is mustahab. Our scholars have established a textual evidence to support this. They have used the above hadith as evidence.

The narration of Sayyidah A’isha rectifies modern day ignorant customs and corrects those people who believe marrying or consummation of marriage in the month of Shawwal is makruh. Their false ideas have no bases, they are just remnants of ignorance, alongside their false falsifications because the name Shawwal itself carries the meaning of lifting and raising something”.

Imam Ibn Abidin has said: “The performance of a Nikah between both Eids and its consummation is permissible. There are those who say its consummation is makruh, but the most preferred position is that it is not as the Messenger of Allah married the Mother of the believers, Sayyidah A’isha in the month of Shawwal and consummated the marriage in Shawwal.”

Considering the previous mentioned evidence, we say that marriage in the month of Shawwal is mustahab.

And Allah ﷻ knows the best.

This Fatwa is written by Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Munir Al-Azhari