Dating in Islam

Falling in love is obviously not forbidden in Islam, but 'dating' is not an Islamic term.

The Prophet taught that building a family is a virtuous thing and he suggested every Muslim to get married. Also, he suggested every Muslim to investigate the background of his/her wife/husband candidate. This investigation is called TA'ARRUF and must in NO WAY develop into dating

Dating, in its modern sense, almost always involves the channeling of sexual lust for the opposite sex by caressing, kissing, or even having sex. These things are strictly forbidden in Islam before marriage. The grounds are:

1. Fornication, as well as adultery, is forbidden in Islam.

2. The Prophet mentioned in the Hadith that whenever a person being intimately in two with his/her unmarried couple, satan will be the 3rd person accompanying & luring them into sex.

So, in Islam getting to know your opposite sex must be clean from any sexual plays and must be done with the clean purpose of finding a fitting wife/husband candidate.

But how getting to know your opposite sex can be done without involving sexuality? You can think of any possible ways. Pious Muslims have been doing that the following ways:

1. Asking about your wife/husband candidate's background to her/his close friends.

2. Coming to her/his house, meeting her/his family, and having chats w/ her/him there.

3. Talking via phones or letters w/ her/him.

4. Taking any of her/his family member with you when both of you go out OR go with her/him and her/his family altogether.

Once you feel you've known her/him well enough, you must declare if you're interested in her/him or not and planning a marriage. This is so that the girl/boy won't be played around with.

As you can see, this all involves good self-control and since many Muslims are unable to fulfill that, they just succumb into 'dating'.