What is the ruling of Islam pertaining to the marriage of a Moslem man to a woman in order to obtain residence green card in return for paying her an amount of money without touching or having sex with her? Also would it be a sin if a woman did so? Or is that permissible to facilitate Moslems` (men /women) life? And is that related to the saying of the Prophet (P.B.U.H) "who makes a joke of marriage or divorce, it becomes his duty"?

The marriage contract according to Shari`ah (legislation) is put for the continuity of spouses` companionship. Its aims are establishing home,, keeping chaste and having children. The marriage contract imposes on its parties mutual rights and commitments. Thus any endeavor leading to violate this contract is deemed evasion of the goal of the legislator and an endeavor to revoke what has been concluded.

Nominal marriage results in a lot of evils, whether this marriage was considered sound or not. Some of such corruptions/evils are mentioned hereinafter:

· If it is considered a sound marriage, it will result in a flood of evils as among which are:

· One`s acceptance of his wife`s religion as well as the lack of maintainance; as the husband has got no control on his wife nor does he know anything of her behaviors and can not prevent her from befriending whoever she wants! There are also evils of Mixing lineages and allowing strangers to enter to the life of the husband and his family, if the woman gave a birth to children at this period and are related to the husband due to the marriage relationship at least from the legal respect. Additionally, if the tow parties agree to terminate their relationship just after finishing the residence procedures, their marriage resembles marriage of mut’ah (enjoyment) i.e. (a marriage contracted for a specified mahr (dowry) and for a limited period agreed upon by both parties, , after which the marriage contract is annulled upon expiry of the period), that is agreed upon its prohibition,. This matter is uglier and more unlawful if a Moslem female got married to a non-Moslem which all Moslems by consensus agreed on its invalidity and prohibition. As she may not be able to resist him if he tries to seduce her due to the legal relationship between them and to her weak situation in this relation as well as her keenness not to stir his anger in order not to stop the procedures of the desired residence green card.

· But if it is not considered a sound marriage, then , there will also be a chain of evils among which are:

· Abusing the marriage contract away from its legislative goals; such as, telling lies and deceiving unjustifiably. it also represents a close plea to fitnah (seduction) because they have a legal relationship and any of them may seduce the other.

· To sum up, this marriage is one of the prohibitions that a man, who believes in Allah and the Last Day, should not involve in; no one undertakes this marriage except those who have no good and lost magnanimity, morals and religion. Allah the Almighty knows best.

· Regarding the Hadith mentioned in the question, we do not know it by this version. Whereas, it was reported in other forms such as { three things if done seriously or playfully they are then valid: marriage, divorce and freeing slaves}. Allah the Almighty knows the best.