Salaam
I'm a guy who lives in a non-Muslim country where Muslims constitute hardly 1% of the population. I've been agnostic my whole life and raised in a secular household, but I've been studying Islam extensivley and will be ready to take the shahada in the coming days. I haven't told anyone about this yet, but most of my relatives and friends are fairly open minded and I don't think I'll face many problems with that. However, there is only one thing I'm worried about at the moment - I don't know how I'll ever get married in a "proper" Islamic way.
I live in a small provincial city, there are no Masjids here. I don't have any Muslim friends. There are sure some muslims, but I can't just randomly walk up to them on the streets. Basically I'm completely isolated from any Muslim community.
I've looked into the Muslim online marriage websites and stuff, but honestly I'm quite skeptical. I've only read bad stuff about those. I could be willing to try if I had to but I don't think I'll have much success there. I haven't even found any users in those websites who would be from my area. Now the only possible way I can think of to get married is by "dating" a non-Muslim and hoping they convert. Yes, no easy task but I really don't know what else I could do. There are other obivous issues with this as well - the gender relations in Islam. Would this even be permissible? Could I "date" Islamically, without all that physical touching? maybe courting would be a better term. Would developing a non-physical emotional attachment, meeting, going out together, and talkingbe acceptable? What else could I possibly do? I'm in no hurry to get married yet, but I'm not planning to be a celibate for life either.
Thanks in advance
I'm a guy who lives in a non-Muslim country where Muslims constitute hardly 1% of the population. I've been agnostic my whole life and raised in a secular household, but I've been studying Islam extensivley and will be ready to take the shahada in the coming days. I haven't told anyone about this yet, but most of my relatives and friends are fairly open minded and I don't think I'll face many problems with that. However, there is only one thing I'm worried about at the moment - I don't know how I'll ever get married in a "proper" Islamic way.
I live in a small provincial city, there are no Masjids here. I don't have any Muslim friends. There are sure some muslims, but I can't just randomly walk up to them on the streets. Basically I'm completely isolated from any Muslim community.
I've looked into the Muslim online marriage websites and stuff, but honestly I'm quite skeptical. I've only read bad stuff about those. I could be willing to try if I had to but I don't think I'll have much success there. I haven't even found any users in those websites who would be from my area. Now the only possible way I can think of to get married is by "dating" a non-Muslim and hoping they convert. Yes, no easy task but I really don't know what else I could do. There are other obivous issues with this as well - the gender relations in Islam. Would this even be permissible? Could I "date" Islamically, without all that physical touching? maybe courting would be a better term. Would developing a non-physical emotional attachment, meeting, going out together, and talkingbe acceptable? What else could I possibly do? I'm in no hurry to get married yet, but I'm not planning to be a celibate for life either.
Thanks in advance