SHARIA WEDDING IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Entering into marriage at the time of Allah's Prophet, a.s. was quite simple. Two formal prerequisites had to be fulfilled: statement of willingness by spouses and presence of witnesses during making statements, and the marriage was considered valid. No written minutes were made about the completed wedding. Since such a form of marriage was susceptible to abuse, authorities in Muslim states prescribed that weddings should be performed in Sharia courts before the kadi, who would record it in the register (sijil). It was the practice of Ottoman authorities when Islam began to spread in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since it often happened that Bosniak Muslims from rural areas and those distant from the kadi found it difficult to get married in a Sharia court, imams were allowed to perform the wedding, upon approval by the kadi, and they submitted minutes about it to the court.

Upon occupying Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, Austro-Hungarian authorities recognized the right of Bosniaks to apply Sharia law in: family, inheritance and waqf matters, and therefore the previous practice was continued. Thus, kadis performed weddings in Sharia courts while jamaat imams did so in rural areas. When the Sharia law ceased to have effect in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1946, until today the Sharia wedding has not produced any legal consequences but has been reduced to a ritual which, according to religious belief and voluntary choice of individuals, was conducted by jamaat imams on the premises of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina or at homes. Sharia wedding was replaced by the civil wedding, and in the first postwar decades of communist rule only few believers opted to use the right to get married according to Sharia law after the civil wedding. As a result, the number of Sharia marriages in urban environments rapidly decreased and in 1967, i.e. not even twenty-two years after the Second World War, only 36 Sharia weddings were performed in Sarajevo, which had about 100,000 Bosniak citizens at the time. Unlike bigger cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Sharia weddings were rarely officially performed, conditions in villages were better, although it is hard to obtain actual data on the number of performed weddings in this period.

Upon gradual softening of the attitude of the state toward religion and religious communities in the 1970s and 1980s, awareness rose among Bosniaks of the need to perform Sharia wedding after the civil one. In this period, Sharia weddings were performed on official premises of the Islamic Community in the cities, and in villages at family homes on the same day when the wedding ceremony or dinner was organized, where relatives, neighbors and friends were invited. It is also interesting that, in this period, the very act of Sharia wedding was typically not public. After dinner, imam would go to another room in the house with the couple and two male witnesses, and the Sharia wedding would be performed only in their presence, whereupon they would return to the main room and, together with all the guests, pray for the happy and harmonious marriage. Besides, it often happened, particularly in urban environments, that the newlyweds kept the wedding before the imam secret.

Democratic changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990 brought about more freedom in interpreting and practicing religious duties, including the Sharia marriage. In this respect, individuals outside the Islamic Community began to advocate, among Bosniaks. the Sharia wedding at the expense of the civil one. Since the Sharia wedding was not recognized by the state and since it did not provide legal protection as that enjoyed by spouses and children in the civil marriage, the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina strongly promoted and advocated the obligation of dual, civil and Sharia marriage, which would ensure God's blessing, Sharia validity of the matrimonial relationship, as well as the formal and legal protection of the spouses and their children. Today, as a result of persistent efforts of the Islamic Community, most Bosniaks perform both civil and Sharia wedding, if possible and typically on the same day.

Besides, Sharia weddings usually take place in mosques. To make the wedding memorable for the couple, famous mosques are often selected as the spot of entering into marriage, such as Ferhadija in Banja Luka, Aladža in Foča, Emperor Mosque in Sarajevo, Esma Sultanija in Jajce etc. Besides, Sharia weddings are often performed on the premises of majlises of the Islamic Community, in wedding halls, hotels, restaurants etc. On the other hand, Sharia weddings are less and less frequently organized at family homes, although this practice has still been preserved in villages.

With respect to timing, Sharia wedding is a religious ritual the timing of which is not strictly determined, which means that it can be performed at any time on any day. Bosniaks used to believe that it is not nice to get married between Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, which is not grounded on religious sources. At the present time, this folk belief has mostly been abandoned and weddings are performed with equal intensity in all Hijri months.

Before Sharia courts were abolished, Sharia wedding was typically performed on the same day when the bride was brought to the bridegroom's house, although it was customary, for the purpose of getting God's blessing, that the first wedding night is one before Friday. According to the teaching of Islam, Friday is the best day of the week, and as in Islam the day begins at sunset, the night on the eve of Friday is the best night of the week, and thus the best time for the first marrital meeting of the spouses. Today, the belief that it is best to begin matrimonial relationship on the eve of Friday has been abandoned. Choice of the day for religious wedding is now closely related to the term of the civil wedding, which is in turn determined by Western European cultural influences in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the schedule of the working week, and therefore most couples choose Saturday as their wedding day, since it is a non-working day when wedding guests can freely attend the wedding. Since newlyweds typically want to have both the civil and the Sharia wedding on the same day, today it is usual that Sharia weddings are also performed on Saturdays.