The nikah of a woman who lived for a year with a Hindu

Question

A woman who is a native of the province of Bihar was sold by deception to a Hindu. Later the woman learned that the man to whom she had been sold was a Hindu. To save her faith (iman) she kept meeting Muslims and tried as hard as she could to keep her iman safe somehow, but no Muslim helped this woman. In this search the woman lived with that Hindu for a year — this is the woman’s statement on oath. After that the woman went to a Muslim man, and she says on oath that no nikah of hers has taken place.

Answer

If that woman says that before she was sold to the Hindus she was not in the nikah of any Muslim, nor in 'idda, and the preponderant opinion (ghalib al-zann) is that she is truthful in this, then marrying her is permissible. Selling a free woman is not permissible; she does not thereby become someone’s property (mamluka).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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