Faizel Patel, Radio Islam – 21-08-2019

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

From expensive venues, to elaborately decorated tables, exotic menu’s and designers dresses, among others, what is the single biggest money waster when it comes to weddings?

This comes after a Vereeniging couple adopted a simple method of spending just seventy five Rand to tie the knot.

The couple who say they were struggling financially got court married without all the fanfare.

Ml Sulaimaan Ravat says in today’s times there is a lot of emphasis and cost placed on the wedding as opposed to the marriage.

He says there have been concerns from across all cultures and not only Islam where people are having to save for a lifetime to get their children married.

“They were struggling financially and the said, ‘look, we came to the realization that a marriage if more important to the wedding.’ Nowadays it’s all about the wedding. The parents are preparing for the wedding, the groom and bride are preparing for the wedding, no one is preparing for the marriage. The marriage is more important than the wedding.”

ML Ravat says Islam does however allow for the marriage to be celebrated according to the shariah way.

“In Islam there is place for a walimah. Wedding is not Sunnah, it’s permissible but it’s not Sunnah where the girls party invites people for a meal. But the boys party it is Sunnah to have a walimah. We know what is the Sunnah way of having it and how we are having it these days.”

Ml Ravat says people can have a function and invite multitudes of people, but its about keeping the occasion simple, not being extravagant and not wasting.