How a Marriage Takes Place in Muslim Community

Few days back I had an occasion to attend a marriage of a colleague's son, who is a Muslim by religion. I myself belong to Hindu caste, therefore we do not get a chance to attend marriages of other religions. I stay at Delhi, which is in North part of India. Normally, in northern parts of India, marriages are performed with much pomp and show and gaiety. One can imagine from quite a distance that a marriage is taking place somewhere. But when we reached at the site of this marriage, here it was a different scenario.

We entered in a large hall, where the marriage was to take place. Bridegroom arrived in an open car soon after. Though, there was a big procession with the Bridegroom, yet it was a calm and a silent procession. I compared the procession with our own marriage processions. In Hindus, Bridegroom comes on a horse or a horse carriage, accompanied by Band and drums. People accompanying him dance to the tune of band and drums on their way to bride's place and it continues till the procession reaches at Bride's place. In this procession, there were no band or drum beats and I did not see anyone dancing or rejoicing during the procession. People entered the hall with calmness and quietness. Many guests from bride and bridegroom's side were there to witness the marriage. They were dressed in beautiful outfits. Most of the male members were wearing the traditional dress of Muslims and were exchanging greetings in Urdu, by bowing their heads.

I noticed that all the females members from bride and bridegroom's parties, were seated in different halls. Women were also decked up and were chatting amongst each other. On the other hand the male members from both the sides were sitting in a different halls. I noticed that there was a raised platform, where the bridegroom settled himself, along with some other close relatives from his side. Meanwhile, a beautiful bride in a traditional dress arrived on the scene and adjusted herself in the hall, where the other females were already sitting.

Thereafter, an old looking bearded priest (Maul vi) took the command of the proceedings. In the beginning, he read few versus of Holy Koran to the bridegroom and asked for his consent i.e. whether he was willing to marry the bride. Bridegroom immediately gave his verbal consent, as it was an arranged marriage. Following that the bridegroom was asked to sign on a Register, as confirmation to his consent, by the Priest. He gleefully signed the register.

After obtaining the signatures of the bridegroom, the priest approached the bride and repeated the procedure, he took verbal consent of the bride and asked her to sign in the register, in the presence of two witnesses. In this manner their marriage was solemnized and two strangers, coming from different family backgrounds became life partners for ever. We also showered our blessings to the couple.

Thereafter, as the ceremony came to an end, we were requested by bridegroom's father to have our dinner. By the time we were feeling hungry, therefore, we immediately proceeded to the dining hall and there we all had our dinner. There were different sections for vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals. I noticed that most of the guests were heading towards the enclosure, where non-vegetarian meal was being served. In Muslim communitey non-vegetarian food is preferred in comparison to vegetarian food. In the non-vegetarian enclosure, there were two partitions, one was for male guests and the other was for female guests. I and my wife had to approach different enclosures to relish our meals. Dinner was really sumptuous and tasty, we enjoyed it thoroughly.

I found that it was a simple, elegant but very impressive way to solemnized a marriage. I had a new experience attending the marriage. I liked it thoroughly.

May God bless the couple for their entire life.