What does Islam tell us if a guy likes a girl and wants to marry her because of her deen?

Kindly refer below our standard reply to similar queries.

and Allah Ta'ala Knows Best

Mufti Ebrahim Desai
FATWA DEPT.

PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM HADITH
Do Not Delay

Nabi (SAW) said: "Do not delay in three things, Salaat when its time has arrived; the marriage of a solitary woman when her match is found and the Janaza Salaat of a deceased when the braise is ready". (Targhib).

The practically of the advice given in this Hadith cannot possibly ever be questioned. As to the advice of not delaying Salaat or Janaza Salaat one can quite easily fathom the great number of benefits and wisdom behind such advice. However, it is our intention to specifically discuss the point of the marriage of a woman whose match has been found. We have generally become extremely negligent in this regard and we find marriages delayed for months on end on absolutely baseless and trivial grounds. The girl is too young (although in the age factor doesn't step her from ranking around with the boy); my uncle from avenues will be coming in six months time; we can't get a booking in a 'certain' hall; let him finish his studies, etc. These are just some of the more common excuses put forward by those who have an intention of acting on the invaluable advice of our beloved Nabi (SAW). The fact of the matter is that marriage is such a venture that, once embarked upon, should not be beset with delay.

In most cases the question for a partner is motivated by the development of a certain level of maturity and physical need in a person. In delaying the matter, especially now that the couple have established inclination for one another by committing themselves to marriage, we are in fact creating a volatile and dangerous situation. They are bound to try and express their need someway or the other and by delaying the marriage, we are in fact becoming the means for the doers of sin and transpession being opened.

We often witness nowadays the manner in which prospective couples mix with one another and go all over the places. Such Haraam practices are even condoned and encouraged by the parents who simply explain it all away by saying: "they are engaged". In many cases it is exactly such Haraam intermingling which result in disastrous consequences and often leads the marriage not occurring at all while the couple (the girl especially) has to live with the stigma against them.

The abovementioned is just one of the harms of failure to practice upon this beautiful injunction of our beloved Nabi (SAW). Another point to consider is the fact that the prolonging of the affair serves as a catalogist to ensure that more and more unnecessary extravagance and wastage accompanies the Nikah (when it finally takes place), since the more time there is the greater and more affluent the preparation will be.

The list of harms goes on but the bottom line is that those endowed with true love for Nabi (SAW) will unquestioningly practice upon the Sunnah regardless of whether they understand the benefit or not. It is exactly this spirit of emulation that we so badly need.