Marriage to us refers to a mutual contract between a man and a woman, sane and mature who have expressed their willingness to stay as a husband and wife in order to become a pious family and a society.

In our culture, marriages are very important such that they are regarded to be a half of a Muslim's faith.

Purpose of marriages in our societies
1)  to secure a comfortable atmosphere for both the husband and wife. Su h that the two become the source of comfort for each other in their lives. The relationship should go beyond that of mere sexual enjoyment and should be based on a cordial friendship accompanied by mutual understanding.

2) to procreate through marriage, a nee generation of healthy, faithful and virtuous children in born. This is to eliminate the possibility of illegitimate children born out of wedlock.

3) to ensure financial competence in the community. If possible both the husband and wife should work to secure a good and comfortable future for their kids. But  the actual responsibility is for the husband, it is his responsibility to provide means of living to his wife and children even if the wife is wealthy or earns a salary.

4) to offer companionship. Marriage provides a close interaction between the man and the woman in mutual sharing of responsibilities and ideas making them live together harmoniously.

5) it prevents one from committing immoral acts like intermingling with members of the opposite sex for sexual pleasure or having sexual relations outside marriage which are not acceptable because it creates immorality and immodesty.

6) it promotes inter-family alliance. Through marriage, family ties are strengthened between families of the couple. This promotes peace, harmony and friendship in the society.

Conditions and regulations of marriages.

1) The formula;
This formula includes offer and acceptance. The man's  proposal, which present his full identification and intention. On the other hand, the woman has to say clearly her wishes and has the right to either accept or decline the proposal. If the woman accepts the propagation then the procedure goes on.

2)the contracting parties;
These are the bride and groom. They must satisfy conditions of marriages such as:
     a) be of sound mind.
     b) they must be mature and able to        make right decisions.
     c) they must give their consent for the marriage.

3) the witnesses;
We hold the issue of witnesses with great importance in our culture and religion. Therefore for a marriage to be contracted, there must be witnesses who must be two men or one man and two women or even four women. The witnesses must be in their right state of mind and also mature enough. They should also understand the language in which the marriage is being conducted.

4) guardianship;
The guardian is in charge of giving consent for the marriage to proceed. The Sharia/law gives the father the first position as the guardian. In case of the absence of the father, then the guardianship will take the following order:
        √ grandfather
        √ bilogical brother
        √ uncle (the father's brother)
        √ kadhi (in case the guardian decline to give consent for a reason that's not valid according to the Sharia law)

5)dowry;
Dowry is  the obligatory gift given to the woman in marriage. It can include a service or other material things like money, property or any other assets. It can be paid in full or partially on the day of wedding. The woman has the right to choose what gift she wants as dowry but it should be done on measurable terms without over burdening the groom.

Importance of dowry:

1) it symbolises the readiness of the husband to provide for his wife.

2) it's a gift so it promotes love between them since the woman asks for something while in mind that she shouldn't over burden the husband while the husband while provide anything that his wife asks for.

3) it improves the financial status of the woman. In case of financial instability in their marriage, the woman can offer the dowry she was given to improve the situation.

4) it legalise sex between the two.

The marriage ceremony

There are pre-wedding ceremonies and post-wedding ceremonies.

The pre-wedding ceremonies are held so that the members of both families can enjoy themselves and interact while the post-wedding ceremonies are held to officially announce the two as legally wedded couple.

Pre-wedding ceremonies:

A wedding can be prolonged upto a week or even more. It depends with the financial status of the families. At first the invited guests and all relatives arrive a day before the actual beginning of the ceremonies. They will go see the bride, pray for her and bless her with a successful and blessed marriage. The same thing happens to the grooms side. The following day, the pre-wedding ceremonies will begin. We usually start with the henna ceremony. This ceremony was borrowed from the Indian culture.

Henna artists are invited over at the venue of the ceremony. The hall where the event will be held is decorated and carpeted. There are thick soft white mattress that can accommodate at least three to four people are arranged everywhere on the carpeted floor.

Then there are the music band playing songs throughout the ceremony. The sisters, cousins and aunts to the bride take the responsibility of making the event successful. They divide themselves into different teams. Others will check on the chefs and taste the food and make sure everything is in the right proportion. Others will check on the main hall where everyone will be and make sure the decorators have done it perfectly and start the air conditioning system so that by the time visitors arrive the place is already cooled. Others will check on the team of Heena artists and sure they are seated two of them at every mattress living a space for one or two visitors to sit in between and get their hands made with the artists and leaving a large space in the middle of the hall where people will dance there. Others will check on the music band and make sure they are comfortable in their direction room and are served with refreshments.

And most importantly, the sisters of the bride are supposed to be close to the bride throughout the functions. They will go receive the hairdressers and makeup artists and take them upstairs to the bride's room and they will start getting ready meanwhile the specialists prepare the bride. Then the sisters and everyone else will go downstairs after getting ready and start receiving guests and move around making sure they greet and meet everyone present and after the rounds of greetings, they are now allowed to sit on the mattresses having two artists on each side where each one will make the designs on each hand. When everyone is settled down, the sisters, cousins and friends of the bride go upstairs and get her. The bride is always in the middle and two of her sisters on her sides as the cousins and friends are behind her giving her company.

In the hall there is a large table with the mattresses all over is and it is risen such that everyone in the hall can see the ones sitted on that table. So the bride and her company go sit on the mattresses arranged on that large table and the the artists start drawing the bride's hands. When they are done with the bride, all the artists in the hall start  drawing their designs on the guests and also the company of the bride.

All this time, the songs are being played and when the Heena are dried, they are removed leaving behind the patterns and designs that were drawn. Then waiters and waitresses serve the food and people eat,drink, laugh, and also start dancing. The bride is also taken at the Middle and she dances with the guests and also her mom and aunts or even her mother in law and sister in laws present.

When the bride gets tired since she's heavily dressed and also having many layers of make up, her sisters and the Company that brought her downstairs take her back to her room. The guests keep enjoying themselves till late in the night and they go back to the hotel that they checked in when they come for the wedding. As the bride is taken back with her parents and sisters back to her maternal home.

Other functions can be like lunch function and music ceremony. Then there is the real marriage function, where the bride and groom are married to each other. We call it nikkah.