About Mithaq Match

Bridging a gap in our communities

One of the serious challenges facing our communities today is finding suitable spouses. Many young people sincerely want to get married and are ready to take that step, but are not connected to the right people. The problem is not that suitable people do not exist. They simply do not know one another.

Traditionally, marriages were often facilitated through extended families and closely connected communities. Today, our communities are larger, more geographically dispersed, and often much less interconnected.

A young person may live in one city, attend university in another, work somewhere else, and have family connections in an entirely different community. Someone potentially very suitable may be only one or two connections away, but neither person has any way of knowing the other exists.

That is the gap Mithaq Match hopes to help bridge. As scholars serving different communities, we are privileged to be connected with a wide network of individuals, families, community leaders, and institutions. Over time, we often find ourselves knowing good people in one community who may be well suited to good people in another, but there has been no easy, organized, and confidential way to connect those networks.

By bringing those networks together in one confidential system, we hope to increase the likelihood that people looking seriously for marriage can be introduced to individuals whom they otherwise may never have encountered.

Why the name?

The name Mithaq comes from the Qur'an's description of the marital bond. In speaking about marriage, Allah refers to it as:

مِيثَاقًا غَلِيظًا

Mīthāqan ghalīẓan — “A firm covenant.”

Qur'an 4:21

Marriage is much more than finding someone who checks the right boxes on a profile. It is a serious covenant, a commitment before Allah, and the foundation of a family.

We chose the name Mithaq Match because we want the process of finding a spouse to reflect the seriousness and dignity of the relationship being sought. Our goal is not simply to generate more matches. It is to help facilitate meaningful introductions that may lead, insha'Allah, to lasting marriages that are firmly bound together with the help of Allah.

What makes Mithaq different?

Mithaq Match is developed and actively managed by scholars, rather than functioning as an anonymous matrimonial database. The scholars overseeing Mithaq are:

• Sayyid Ali Jafri
• Alimah Eman Shaiwani
• Sayyid Hasan Naqvi
• Shaykh Salim Yusufali

Other scholars may also be involved in due course.

The candidates in the Mithaq network are not simply profiles collected from the internet. Candidates are people with whom the scholars have some degree of community connection or familiarity: directly, through their families, through other trusted individuals, or through the communities in which the scholars serve.

This allows Mithaq Match to combine something modern technology does well—organizing information and identifying possible compatibility—with something technology cannot replace: human relationships, community knowledge, and personal oversight.

AI-assisted, not AI-governed

Mithaq Match uses technology, including AI-assisted matching, to help identify candidates who may be compatible based on factors such as age, location, religious priorities, education, family goals, preferences, and other relevant profile information.

AI does not decide whom someone should marry, and AI does not make the final recommendation. Personally identifying and confidential candidate information is not sent to AI systems for matching. Technology helps identify possibilities while maintaining candidate confidentiality.

Potential matches are then considered with human oversight. Scholars can review possible connections, take into account circumstances that an algorithm may not understand, and facilitate an introduction when a match appears worth exploring.

Why we do this

Mithaq Match is offered free of charge as a service to our community. The Qur'an does not treat helping people marry as merely an individual concern. Allah tells us:

“Marry off the singles among you and the righteous among your male and female servants. If they are poor, Allah will enrich them out of His bounty. Allah is All-Bountiful, All-Knowing.”

Qur'an 24:32

The teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt (a) place particular value on helping another person marry as well. Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq (a) said:

“Whoever helps an unmarried person to marry is among those whom Allah will look upon on the Day of Resurrection.”

al-Kāfī, vol. 5, p. 331

Mithaq Match is our small effort to put that teaching into practice. If scholars have relationships and networks that can help two suitable people find one another, we believe those connections should be used in service of the community.

What a recommendation means

Because scholars are involved in the process, we want to be especially clear about what a Mithaq recommendation does—and does not—mean.

A suggested match or introduction through Mithaq Match is not an endorsement, certification, guarantee, or personal vouching for either candidate.

The fact that a scholar knows a candidate, knows the candidate's family, or has another community connection with them does not mean that the scholar has complete knowledge of that person's character, history, private conduct, circumstances, compatibility, or suitability for marriage. Nor does apparent compatibility based on the information available to us mean that two people will necessarily be compatible in marriage.

A Mithaq Match recommendation should be understood as an introduction, not an endorsement.

Marriage is an important personal decision. Each candidate and family remains responsible for conducting their own due diligence. This may include:

• speaking with the candidate;
• involving parents, family members, or trusted advisers;
• asking appropriate questions;
• speaking with references;
• independently verifying information provided in a profile; and
• undertaking any additional investigation they consider necessary before making a decision.

Candidates should not rely on the involvement of scholars as a substitute for their own investigation and judgment.

The scholars of Mithaq Match facilitate introductions in good faith based on the information available to them. They cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of information supplied by candidates, predict the success of a relationship, or accept responsibility for a candidate's conduct or for decisions made as a result of an introduction.

May Allah place barakah in this effort, guide those searching for a spouse toward what is best for them, and make Mithaq Match a means of establishing marriages firmly bound together and committed to following the path of our Prophet (s) and the Ahlul Bayt (a).

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