Anyhow my brother, the other day when you wrote about Misyar Marriage ie travellers marriage I was bit curious because I have never heard of it. So, i googled for it and was even bewildered when I discovered yet another funny or maybe not so funny terminology known as Zawaj Friend!
For those of you who have no idea what is Zawaj friend, it's an idea introduced by this so called Sheikh Abdul Majed Al Zandani from yemen in 2003. Mr Al Zandani said to stop the phenomena of boy friend/ girl friend that muslims engage in is to replace it with Zawaj friend. Zawaj friend is " when the guy and girl get married with the knowledge of their parents but they both live at their homes and the girl and guy meet up as husband and wife. Then at a later date when the couple can upgrade this to a full marriage. Zawaj friend is intended to be a temporary and for it to be valid it has to meet the minimum requirements of a normal nikah, i.e. willingness of both parties, public declaration to everyone, etc etc."
In my google search, i come across an article saying that this practice is legit in Saudia Arabia. And I also googled about this Sheikh, I found people ridiculing him. Here is his info in wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Majeed_al-Zindani
The other comic forms of marriage that i found was: cassette marriage, marriage by blood, marriage by tears and soon coming near you marriage by mobile text and tears.
What happened to the sacred status of marriage? Are these signs of disintegration of morals everywhere?
I have personally seen the example you have stated. Someone I am close to is in such an arrangement which I find quite odd.
