Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
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- A Muslim is ordained to quickly repent from his/her sins asking for Allah’s forgiveness whatever the sin he/she has committed is.
2- As for your question, you are allowed to marry that man provided that you have been fully divorced from your ex-husband and finished the iddah period and both you and your partner have repented from your grave sin.
3- As for abortion, it is not allowed in your case.
Responding to you question, Dr. Mohammad Qatanani, Professor at the Islamic American University and Imam of the Islamic Centre of Passaic County in New Jersey, stated:
It is very important to remind you of tawbah (repentance) and the conditions of repentance.
Separation is not considered divorce. However, if you mean that he divorced you Islamicaly, then you are considered divorced.
This comes with one condition which is that your husband does not return you back until the end of the iddah (waiting period).
The iddah is three periods (menstrual periods) after the Islamic divorce. If you have already finished the iddah, then you can marry the new man according to the Shari`ah.
However, it is not recommended to marry another man while the legal papers are still in process except in some cases like yours.
For a Muslim, it is very important to respect the laws of the country where he/she lives. This will preserve everyone’s rights and help to avoid future complications.
Allah Almighty says, “And marry the unmarried among you and the righteous among your male slaves and female slaves. If they should be poor, Allah will enrich them from His bounty, and Allah is all-Encompassing and Knowing.” (An-Nur 24:32)
According to most scholars, it is permitted to get married with the one you committed zina (adultery) with. However, this comes with two absolute conditions:
1- To be fully divorced from the first marriage.
2- Both sides must perform sincere repentance and ask for forgiveness from Allah. That is because it is forbidden to marry anyone who is still committing zina.
Allah Almighty says, “The fornicator does not marry except a [female] fornicator or polytheist, and none marries her except a fornicator or a polytheist, and that has been made unlawful to the believers.” (An-Nur 24:3)
As for abortion, it is not allowed in your case.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.