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Fatwa CenterDiseases that may affect marital life should be disclosed before concluding the marriage contract
Question
I have a disease that affects the liver that is transmitted through blood, sex or childbirth. I caught it due to lack of antisepsis at birth. This disease usually appears between forty and sixty years of age, and once it appears, the affected person dies some days later. As yet, no remedy has been found but there is a vaccine against it. At present, I am 23 years old. I have a job and would like to marry. My question is: could I vaccinate the woman whom I would like to marry without telling her about the reality of my disease? If your Fatwa is in the negative, then, I would not be accepted. Is it lawful to spend my entire life without marriage? Is this not a violation of the rules of a sound innate disposition? I am content with the fate that Allaah The Almighty has decreed for me. What should I do to restrain my sexual desire and not fall into sin?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
A faithful believer must accept the fate that Allaah The Almighty decrees for him, and should do so patiently while hoping for the reward from Allaah The Almighty, keeping in mind that there is wisdom known only by Allaah The Almighty that lies behind whatever diseases and trials he is exposed to, and that they are a means to raise his rank and blot out his sins.
Undoubtedly, the disease that has affected you is a kind of trial, and perhaps Allaah The Almighty would cure you of it by virtue of your obedience and piety, and prayer to Him to cure you and restore you to health, since nothing but supplication can avert fate, as confirmed in the noble Prophetic Hadeeth (narration).
As for your intention to marry and your question whether or not to tell your would-be wife about this disease, let us say that if it is certain that you are affected by that disease, due to your confidence in the validity of analyses and tests, on the basis of their variety and multiple sources, we are of the view that you should tell the woman whom you would like to marry about this. This is necessary so that she is fully aware of the matter, especially since you are going to vaccinate her against the disease, and you must have her permission before you give her the vaccine. Furthermore, after marriage, the symptoms of the disease might appear, which would put the family life to risk, for by then the woman would perceive to what extent she has been deceived and cheated.
No doubt, you would never accept to be treated as such by your wife. If you marry a woman and after marriage you detect that she is suffering from such a disease and that she has hidden this fact from you, of a surety, your impression would be that you have been cheated and deceived. It is narrated in a Prophetic Hadeeth: "None of you has believed until he likes for his brother what he likes for himself." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
We advise you to endeavor to treat yourself, and do your best to search for a remedy, and have confidence in Allaah The Almighty, seek refuge in Him, and treat yourself with the things which He made curative like the water of Zamzam, honey, black seed and other such things. Many sick persons whose disease was hopeless took refuge in that, with reliance on and confidence in Allaah The Almighty, and they fully recovered.
If you intend to marry, it may be that Allaah The Almighty would place in your way a righteous woman who accepts to marry you regardless of your disease.
We ask Allaah to cure you, restore you to health, and make your affairs easy.
Allaah Knows best.
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