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My question is about the dais on which the bride is placed, which is a kind of platform or stage which is on a higher level than the people who are present, so that the bride may be easily seen by all the people present. Is this a kind of arrogance, knowing that some of the friends of the bride sit with her? Please advise us, may Allaah reward you with good.
Praise be to Allah.
The dais on which the bride sits is something that has been well known from ancient times and is mentioned in several classical texts.
There is nothing wrong with the bride sitting on a dais, subject to the condition that it be screened from the gaze of non-mahram men. This is not regarded as a kind of arrogance, rather the aim, as you stated, is for everyone to be able to see her.
Here we should point out the evils that happen in some societies on such occasions, where the husband sits with his wife on this dais when she is wearing all her finery, in front of both men and women, or the husband comes in and sits with his wife on the dais when there are women present who are not his mahrams, wearing all their adornments.
The scholars of the Standing Committee said:
For the husband to appear on the dais in front of women who are not his mahrams and who are present at the wedding party, where he can see them and they can see him, and they are wearing all their adornments and he is wearing all his finery, is not permissible, rather it is an evil action which must be denounced.
Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 19/120.
And Allaah knows best.