Physical contact for an engaged couple

Question:
If a couple is engaged formally with their consent as well as their elders' willingness, are they then allowed to have physical contact? Also, if due to some unavoidable circumstances they fall into a situation where they get physically intimate, then what has Islam to offer them? Is it Islamically haram or unethical to come into physical contact with your wife-to-be or husband-to-be?

Response:
Engagement has no official status from an Islamic point of view. It is only an understanding between the two parties which is not even binding on either of them. Perhaps the only logic behind the arrangement is to enable the two to feel psychologically comfortable that they are committed to each other. Also, the families get to know each other better in the period between the engagement and 'Nikah'. In case if there are reasons felt by either of the parties that necessitate 'disengagement', it is not quite as complicated as breaking a 'Nikah'. However, the two (boy and girl or man and woman) are as strangers for all practical purposes in the eyes of Shari'ah as they were before their engagement. Therefore, there is no question of the two having any physical relationship with each other.

Another way out for the intending couple could be to bind each other by going through the formality of 'Nikah', even though without 'Rukhsati'. In that case the relationship would be officially recognised and the complications of the sort you have referred to are not likely to arise. The only difficulty in this case is that, as mentioned earlier, disengaging 'Nikah' entails a more complicated process.

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