i dont think there is anything wrong with interacting with your future spouse to be.. we used to be in contact before we got married.. (actually before we got engaged as it wasn't an arranged marriage)
so maybe, this ought to be a thread about arranged marriages and whether you should be in contact with your hubby or wifey to be.. ? and I would say "yes".. you need to know about each other.. goals, achievements.. future ideas.. they do tell a lot about a person... also it gives you both a chance to see each others faults and appreciate each other nonetheless... :)
If you are a good muslim then you can't be alone in one room with your fiance, lunch/dinner in public places might be acceptable in some cases, but its better to have parents or other adult family members around.
Interaction through telephone and e-mail is a good idea.
Talking out of personal experience, it wasn't a good idea to meet and interact before marriage as it caused lots of problems and misunderstandings and at one stage our engagement was near an end.
i got engaged twice, first one was quite weird, i knew the girl and the family since very long, but the girl was least interested to be in contact with me. always felt something is not quite right when i managed to speak to her couple of times. then i stopped trying and stayed out of contact for rest of the engaged period and eventually walked out of it.
all along she had an affair, agreed to engagement just being good girl in the family, dont understand bit cause she was consulted before putting proposal to her parents only after she didnt raised any concern, it cant be shyness as she was a good friend of my sister.
just after few months i walked out of the engagement, she just went for civil marriage with the guy.
so if it was a guick mangni and bhia, i would have been trouble. I think its better to end an engagement than a divorce. however family stuff can put extra burden on this fragile relationship of engagement.
personally i would have a nice time before the formalities of a wedded life, specially for those guys who waited for only one and can enjoy some dinners and outing before married life, married life cant compare to this one at all.
i cant tell u guyz what happened but i will say that i found out a lot about those people that helped me come 2 the conclusion that it is best 2 finish it. so in that respect the engagement period is good because u get a sense of what ur getting urself into and how things will be with that fmaily in the futurre. BUT...
if i sat down before the engagemnt, before even going to pak to there house..nd thought about what i've heard about them about there family's past actions and about that larka's past actions.. instead of giving them the benfit of the doubt as my parents insisted that i do i could have spared this whole troubled experience. dont brush off things u hear that ur relatives do just bcs they r u r reltatives nd ur parents say we know them. if theyr not right with other ppl, they prbly wont stay right with u!