Marriage in the Muslim Community
From The Peopling of Astoria, Queens
The Al- Iman Mosque and the Masjid Dar Al-Dawah both conduct approximately
25 marriages each year. The Shahjalal Masjid, however, is smaller in size
and strength of membership and conducts on average only 10-15 marriages
every year. The couples come to the imam of their local mosque and express
their desire to be united in marriage. After a pre-marriage counseling
session, the imam accepts to wed them in the mosque. The marriage takes
place in the presence of witnesses. The groom agrees to pay a certain amount
requested by the father of the bride in the presence of the imam and the
witnesses. Following this custom, the imam recites prayers from the Qu’ran.
The marriage ceremony is complete when the couple both recite the words:
“Kabul, Kabul, Kabul” which means “I accept, I accept, I accept.” After this
ritual the couple is recognized as man and wife in the eyes of Allah.
We also learned that there are quite a few conversions and inter-faith
marriages conducted in this mosque. We were informed that almost all of
the intermarriages were between Muslim men and non-Muslim women. Women who
were Christian or Jewish can get married in the Mosque without converting
but women of other religions must be converted before they marry in the
mosque. Even though it is not mandatory for the Jewish and Christian women
to convert, in fact many of them do convert to Islam before marriage. Out of
the 25 or so marriages conducted in the bigger mosques, approximately 10 of
them are interfaith marriages while only 4-5 interfaith marriages conducted
at the Shahjalal Masjid.
Below is the video of one of the major prayers recited from the Qur'an
during a wedding ceremony which was recorded in the Masjid Dar Al-Dawah, one
of the mosques we visited during our field study.