Living Without Marriage
The real issue is that people do not want to marry formally especially in a court because of legal and financial issues that arise later and the difficulty of going through divorce, because mostly there is a contested divorce that requires years of litigation, bankruptcy and mental trauma. Thus, people choose not to legally get married. It is not that they are not faithful or committed to each other and they don’t take full responsibility of raising the children, but it is to avoid expensive divorce and unfair laws in some states, etc. That is why many couples choose to opt for Common Law marriage. Which in my opinion legal in Islam as the marriage is publicly announced, written down, but not legally registered. COMMON LAW MARRIAGE DEFINITION A common law marriage is one where the parties cohabit with each other, have a mutual agreement to be married, and hold themselves out to be married (evidence of mutual agreement). You are not required to have a civil or religious ceremony, a marriage license, or a marriage certificate to have a common law marriage.