It seems as though to go along with society’s customs, people are willing to compromise with Islamic teachings, specifically the
sunnah way of marriage. Even religious people spend enormous amounts of money on their son’s and daughter’s marriages. In this day and age, the
sunnah way of marriage seems non-existent. What happened to the
sunnah way of marriage?
The custom of having a baaraat, spending ridiculous amounts on each others marriage clothing, spending a fortune on food to serve guests (while poor people out there rot and die), spending enormous amounts of money on wedding halls, the groom’s side purchasing expensive jewellery while the bride’s side arranging for dowry, spending tens of thousands on the wedding video, spending thousands on mehndi and uptan ceremonies; all these things are un-Islamic, against the sunnah of Prophet Mohammad (SAW), and only entail the waste of hard earned money.
Many people hold a grand walima, citing that it is sunnah. There is no need to spend tens of thousands booking a hall, and then spending another enormous amount feeding a huge number of guests. The sunnah way of walima can take place in the house with only very few people and simple food like dates.
In this day and age, it has become a habit, a fashion rather, to blindly follow other people, regardless of whether it makes sense or not, regardless of people’s financial condition - even if a person’s financial condition is good, there is no shortage of poor people in the world - spend on them.
It is well and truly sad that when even the religious people of society will ignore the Islamic way of marriage, disregard the sunnah of Prophet Mohammad (SAW), and spend money like water on marriages, then what hope is there from the not-so-religious.
The sunnah way of marriage can take place in a mosque or at home, with only a few witnesses (a minimum of two), and a qazi. There is no expense of any kind in the sunnah way of marriage.