Relationship with Muslim woman

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I’m Catholic and my girlfriend is a Muslim. I know that from the Catholic point of view it’s possible for me to marry her (eventually) but in general it’s not considered possible for a Muslim woman to marry a non-Muslim. She’s proposing me to say the shahada just so we can get the Muslim wedding ceremony and after that I would continue living as I live now. Is that a permissible thing to do?
 
If I remember correctly the shahada is the Muslim profession of faith. You can look it up to be sure.
 
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Yup. I realize though that from the Muslim point of view it may not make much sense, cause it could make the marriage invalid. But at least it would keep the family happy hah.
 
czb said:
She’s proposing me to say the shahada just so we can get the Muslim wedding ceremony and after that I would continue living as I live now.
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Absolutely NOT! Sorry, unless she is willing to go against her family and marry you anyway in a Catholic ceremony, there’s little you can do.
" but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." - Matthew 10:33
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czb said:
She’s proposing me to say the shahada just so we can get the Muslim wedding ceremony and after that I would continue living as I live now. Is that a permissible thing to do
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I’m surprised you don’t know the answer to this already. Of course that’s not considered kosher.

Its lying among other things, and a pretty serious lie at that.

If you would do it, you wouldn’t be the first man to do something like this to impress a woman. But you still shouldn’t do it.
 
Deeply wrong. Do not deny the Christian Faith, and do not insincerely say such a thing.

Trust in Christ
 
In addition to this being a denial of your faith, it also raises questions of what kind of marriage and what kind of family you will have. Do you see yourself raising your children as Muslims? It doesn’t exactly sound like your future wife would want them raised as Catholics. Do you see yourself practicing your faith in the future? It sounds like you’d be on your own without the support of your wife. Is that really what you want in life?
 
So, what’s the Shahadah?

“There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”

So, you could try to play weasel-words and say, “Allah is just the Arabic word for God, and I believe that there’s only one God, so I can say that part.”

But what is meant by Allah? As in, what kind of god has he revealed himself to be?

Well, our God has an only-begotten son, right? Jesus. Allah doesn’t have a son.

Our God is a triune God. He’s three persons in one Trinity. But Allah isn’t part of a trinity.

We believe that the second part of the Trinity incarnated as fully man and fully God, and sacrificed himself to earn salvation for mankind and open the doors to heaven that had been shut by sin. But Allah… he never incarnated, and he never sacrificed.

Our God is love. He’s only bound by his nature, and cannot do anything contrary to his own nature, but within that nature, he always makes sense. Allah isn’t bound by anything at all.

We direct people to look towards Jesus as the ideal for us to measure ourselves against. They look to Mohammed as the ideal to measure themselves against… and that would be a book right there. 🙂 And the Resurrection was fake, and Jesus was just a prophet, and just go ahead and ignore half the stuff he said, because that’s another book, going through all the stuff Jesus preached about that’s directly contrary to what’s set down in the Quran.

So, if you want to lie and be insincere about something because standing up for your faith isn’t important to you— then that’s your call. But this is the easy part, dating and trying to discern whether the relationship has any long-term prospects. If it has a future, then you keep at it; and if it doesn’t have a future, you don’t waste your time or hers. By the time you get to the bit about raising up kids in a mixed marriage-- that isn’t a walk in the park when it’s Catholic/Baptist, or Catholic/Methodist, or Catholic/InsertYourFlavorofChristianityHere. It’s easier when the non-Catholic parent isn’t really practicing anything-- but only a bit easier. Raising up kids in a mixed marriage is a thousand times more difficult when the two parents have totally different ideas of what God is.

So, one of you is going to have to cave if the relationship is going to progress to anything permanent. And from the OP, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be her, unless you know it’s the wrong thing and are just looking for affirmation. 😉
 
czb said:
She’s proposing me to say the shahada just so we can get the Muslim wedding ceremony
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Absolutely NOT! @czb

“The Shahada is an Islamic creed declaring belief in the oneness of God and the acceptance of Muhammad as God’s prophet.”

Saying that is committing Apostasy:

“[…] the total repudiation of the Christian faith […]”.
 
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It would not be permissible to profess another faith even if insincerely.

Also, pretty sure it wouldn’t be permissible for a Catholic to just get married outside of the Church without a dispensation from the bishop.
 
Not permissible, and certainly not something you should ever do to “keep the family happy”. This is not a joke. Take your beliefs and hers seriously.
 
So many others have answered correctly, absolutely not. I just wanted to add how could you expect to have a sincere honest relationship if you can entertain the idea of being insincere about the most important topic. I am assuming each of you do hold to your respective beliefs.
 
Honestly, I an sort of shocked that she has been allowed to have a romantic relationship if her family will not permit her to marry you.

The Church may give you a dispensation from form AND a disparity of cult to allow you to marry in a neutral, secular setting. This is something to talk to your pastor about.
 
Even if you were an agnostic or an atheist, I would think it was a terrible idea. What is the woman going to ask you to do next? Shed your presumably Christian “slave” name to be Charles X or Kareem Ali? You can explain that away to “whats in a name”.

Take the family on a hajj?

You aren’t even married yet, and she’s asking a lot.
 
czb, it looks like you just joined the forum to ask this question. I can only assume you are not very serious about your faith, otherwise you would already know the answer to this. As others have said, do NOT say the Shahada under any circumstances. To do so would be to deny Christ. You wouldn’t even have the bad excuse of being afraid like Peter when he denied Christ…you would be saying it insincerely, on purpose, and with intent to deceive her family. Others have given you good advice. God will hold you accountable for your words on this. For the sake of your soul, please talk to a priest and get some advice from him about your relationship with your girlfriend. I pray you make the right choice. God bless.
 
No, you shouldn’t change your religion. If she truly loves you, she wouldn’t ask you to. The Bible says it’s important to be equally yoked, probably best Not to date outside your Faith Tradition, even marrying to a non-Catholic Christian can pose some difficulties, but not nearly as much as dating a non-Christian would pose. That being did, I think Islam is the religion closest to Christianity as at least they acknowledge One God And believe Jesus is the Messiah and a Prophet and they even believe in His Second Coming, but they don’t believe Jesus is Lord God and they don’t believe in the Holy Trinity. I think having the same knowledge & understanding of exactly Who Jesus Christ is in fullness of Truth, would be basic foundational in any successful marriage. Good luck to you because I know once the emotions are involved, it gets really tricky. Blessings to you both! I hope for each of you a long and happy marriage; although, thoroughly seek God’s Will to determine if the marriage will be to each other or to other persons.
 
What do you want to do? You say you are Catholic and you know what the Church teaches. Why ask this forum this question when you know we will say, “No”?
 
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