My father is forcing me to marry and I refused. He said he has disowned me.  I did ijab and qubol with my friend he paid me mehr and took me to a hotel.  The manager asked ‘Is she your wife?’ and man accepted that female accompanying her verbally is his wife and i nodded too that i m and both signed an oath stating that they are husband and wife in front of manager and waitor watching and listening them both males and muslims is nikah doneby accepting in front of those two muslim males while both are baligh and around 24. plz guide me.

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.

Answer

For marriage to be valid the condition is that there should be at least two male witnesses or one male and two female witnesses who are required to listen to the words of proposal (Ijab) and acceptance (qabul) clearly (Hidayah  p.306 v.2)

Furthermore, the statement of offer and acceptance has to be done verbally and not written or gestured. The statement should be communicated in such a way that they are heard and understood clearly by the witnesses.  (Fathul Qadir, p.190 v.3)

However, if one party was not present at the marriage ceremony, for example, the male was absent, it is permitted for him to write the “offer” beforehand and send it to the female. In this case, the female will have to verbally and vocally read out the “offer” on behalf of the male in front of two male witnesses and then verbally pronounce her “acceptance”.

The conclusion we can come to is that if both parties are present at the time of the marriage ceremony, both will have to make verbal pronouncements of offer and acceptance. It will not be sufficient if they were to merely write these statements down on a piece of paper or gesture their intentions to each other.

With regards to your question, as the wife nodded without verbally saying the statement of offer the marriage would not be done.

Only Allah Knows Best

Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham.