Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Regarding your question, you should repent and seek Allah’s forgiveness for the major sin you committed.
2- If you and your girlfriend repented, you could marry. If you cannot marry her for any reason, then you should not tell anybody about your mistake.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
You have been guilty of fornication, which is indeed a grave sin in Islam. You cannot rationalize your action saying you did so- hoping to marry her.
Now that you have committed this grave sin, you need to repent, ask forgiveness of Allah Almighty and change yourself. You should never divulge this secret to anyone; you are not allowed to tell her father about it. By doing so you are exposing yourself; you are also tarnishing the reputation of the girl.
If the girl wants to marry you with the consent of her parents, then you may do so after both of you have repented.
If they do not want to do that, then you ought to forget her and move on with your life. Once you change and come clean and seek the help of Allah, He will forgive you, and He will grant you relief and comfort.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.