Muslim woman in love with a non-Muslim interested in converting

I am a Muslim woman and have fallen in love with a non-Muslim man. I have opened his eyes to this great religion and he is learning and wants to convert. Since my parents will not be happy with my situation, we need some guidance as to how we should go about his conversion? Also do we need a witness or documentation as proof?

It is Allah and not we that opens hearts and minds to the truth. Further, your parents will be happy with the help of Allah, if His good pleasure is pursued. How? Through their own good pleasure. As He has ordered in His Book: {wabil-walidayni ihsana} – Treat your father and mother with the utmost highest manner. This is key.

Hence, from the viewpoint of the Religion of those concerned it is advisable that the will of the Muslim parents be respected and that such an important step as someone's conversion, redoubled in gravity by the prospect of marrying them, NOT be built on the betrayal of the gratitude and trust owed to parents which is an abominable act and an enormity. Rather, it behooves the Muslim woman to give advice to the non-Muslim man and for the latter to do what it takes on his own; including seeking practical counsel from a qualified male Muslim that might get to know him, vouch for his character, accompany him or witness for him etc. Then he should approach the parents himself. This is the mature and responsible manner that every culture stands to recognize and approve. As for Islam, parents are the precondition sine qua non of blessing in the matter of a prospective relationship regardless of the matter of conversion. Through our pleasing them, Allah will put light and blessing in everything else of ours in sha'Allah.

From a purely logistical and administrative viewpoint it will be most useful to make the conversion as public and official as possible because its proof might serve later on for marriage, inheritance etc. This is in fact obligatory in Muslim countries or those countries that take Islamic Law into account such as Lebanon. The body in charge would be Dar al-Ifta' and/or an Islamic court or any authoritative branch of a department or ministry of religious affairs. Short of this, papers issued and witnessed by the imam of a mosque or Islamic association – such as a Muslim Student Association - could suffice.

Hajj Gibril