This **report**here suggests that if you are married in a mosque in England which is not officially registered as a place for marriage than according to British law, you aren’t really married. Is that true?
I ask because, there is this Pakistani couple here in my state who were married in Pakistan and went through a (bitter) divorce, and they got it done through the civil court system. So does the British law in the essence different from the states laws in US? Just to be complete here, in the case I mentioned above, even after the local state issued the divorce papers, the guy kept insisting that they are still “islamically” married, which made the girl really mad, so she went on to get an official Islamic “khula”, just to shut him up. I don’t know if she got it or not.
As far as I know, the states (depending on which state you live in) let third parties be arbitrators in marriage disputes and then ‘senction’ the decision to make it legal. i.e. you can go to the local mosque, who arbitrates the case based on Sharia and then take the decision back to the local state authorise to have it sanctioned. Provided all disputed parties agree on doing that.
Re: Khula or divorce
Someone I know got her Nikah done with a guy in Pakistan - Islamically and legally. They were going to do the rukhsati once he got his papers for Canada. Unfortunately things didn't work out between the two and she asked for a divorce. He refused to divorce her point blank. He said the only way he was going to divorce her was if she brought him over to Canada first. Once he got here, he'd be more than willing to divorce her. She was quite angry so she went to the court to get a legal divorce.
Is the legal divorce also an Islamic divorce - well, there is a difference of opinion in that matter. There are two schools of thought on this issue. The majority says if the legal system of the country in which you reside nulls the marriage, then that is also an Islamic divorce. More conservative scholars would say otherwise.
To answer your other question: getting married Islamically and legally is most countries are two different things. Just because you have your nikah done, doesn't make you a married couple according to the courts. A marriage must be registered to be considered legal - in Canada, anyway. Otherwise, you're considered common-law according to the stats.
Re: Khula or divorce
Its true. a islamic marriage in a mosque is not seen as a legal marriage, which is a bit silly as a marriage in a church is. wouldnt expect that in this day and age.
so when u have ur nikah done, u have to apply for a registration marriage to be viewed as legally married.