I reside abroad and the girl's father (wali) is in Pakistan. Travel is not possible at present. Will a nikah be concluded by making the offer and acceptance (ijab-o qabul) through a video call or by phone? How will the condition of the witnesses be fulfilled?

The validity of a nikah depends upon these conditions: (1) The permission and offer (ijab) of the wali, because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “There is no nikah without a wali” (Sunan Abi Dawud: 2085; Jami' al-Tirmidhi: 1101; Sunan Ibn Majah: 1881 — Imam al-Albani, may Allah have mercy on him, declared it sahih). (2) The presence of two upright Muslim witnesses; the Prophetic command is: “There is no nikah except with a wali and two upright witnesses” (al-Bayhaqi; al-Albani said it is sahih in Sahih al-Jami': 7557). (3) The offer and acceptance in one and the same sitting, and the mutual consent of the parties and the fixing of the mahr. These conditions are just as necessary in an online contract as they are in a face-to-face contract.

A live audio and video connection through modern means, when the parties are hearing and seeing one another and the witnesses hear the conversation of both sides, is, in fiqh terms, one form of the unity of the sitting (ittihad al-majlis) itself. The real issue is not distance, but the certainty of identity and the possibility of deception.

(1) Shaykh Abdul Aziz ibn Baz, may Allah have mercy on him, was asked this very question, and he said that if the matter is genuine and no deception is intended in it, and the witnesses hear the wali's offer and the groom's acceptance through the phone, then the conditions of a Shariah nikah are fulfilled and the contract is valid (Majmu' Fatawa Ibn Baz; Islam Q&A, Fatwa Nos. 3464 and 105531). (2) Al-Lajnah al-Da'imah has, as a precaution, prohibited nikah over the phone, because there remains an apprehension of deception in the imitation of a voice and in identity (Fatawa al-Lajnah al-Da'imah: 18/90). (3) The Islamic Fiqh Academy (Majma' al-Fiqh al-Islami), while declaring general contracts concluded through modern means of communication permissible, kept nikah excepted from it, because the presence of witnesses is a condition in it (Resolution No. 52 (6/2)).

The preponderant view is that if the identity of the parties is categorically certain, the wali himself makes the offer, the groom accepts, and two upright witnesses at that very time hear — and in a video call, also see — the voices of both, then the nikah is concluded and valid in the Shariah. Nevertheless, the safest and best form is that the wali appoint a trustworthy person as his representative (wakil) at his own place or in the groom's city, and the contract take place face to face; or that witnesses be present on both sides on the video call. Moreover, the official registration of the nikah (Union Council / NADRA) must be done, so that the protection of rights and of lineage also remains secured in documentary form. Where there is even the slightest doubt in identity, such a contract should not be done, in accordance with the precautionary view of al-Lajnah al-Da'imah.

A Maqasid Note: Among the objectives of nikah, announcement, the protection of progeny and the safeguarding of honours are at the forefront. The modern means is for the service of these very objectives; the assurance of identity and testimony is in reality the protection of these very objectives — negligence in it harms the objective itself.

Translated from the original Urdu fatwa.