The Service Logo

By Sheikha al-Saady, IOL Staff

DOHA, October 24 (IslamOnline.net) - Over 11,000 members have joined the Matrimonial Service offered by IslamOnline.net a year ago, marking a great success and a motive for staffers behind it to go on.

This month, October 2003, has witnessed  the first anniversary of the Matrimonial service, with the total number of all registered members in both the English and the Arabic services hitting the mark of 11787 members.

According to the annual report made by the Matrimonial team, out of all registered members only 6495 have been approved, while the remaining 45% of members were removed, due to lack of information or invalid e-mail addresses.

Seventy two percent of approved members are males, while only 28% are females, and that reveals the nature of women, who may find it inappropriate or embarrassing to register in a matrimonial service, and wait for a proposal to be sent to them, or to make the first step and initiate in communicating the other side.

The geographical distribution shows that out of 115 countries, members who reside in Egypt have reached the highest percentage, 21%, coming next is Saudi Arabia 14%, followed by the U.S. 9%, then U.A.E. 6%, then Morocco 5.3%, and finally U.K. 4.7%.

Since IOL started running the service up till October of this year, we received 60 messages from couples informing us of their successful marriage experiences through our service, and asking for their accounts to be removed.

However, many of our members inform us that they have found their partners, but never come back and tell us more about their experiences, or whether marriage procedures have taken place or not.

IOL Matrimonial service has been developed to encourage Muslims to build successful righteous families through a safe environment, and is seeking to help fill the gap among Muslim societies all over the world. So, it is free to all users, Muslim males and Muslim, Christian and Jewish females, and is designed in a way that allows members to create private accounts, where they can provide all the information, about themselves and about their desired spouses, to be displayed to other members.

Moreover, the role of the Matrimonial team has distinguished the service, in terms of privacy of addresses and credibility of information. Any offensive or improper content is deleted immediately. In addition, all addresses are hidden, and members should wait for the confirmation of the other side to exchange e-mail or any other personal addresses.

This can only be achieved after completing registration in IslamOnline.net, and in Matrimonial, and becoming a member.

In its continuous efforts to help members obtain the utmost benefit of the service, the team has developed a help page, so that members can refer to when they have any inquiry about how to use the service.

The Matrimonial team strives to constantly develop the service to better serve all members, and as a result it has gained, with the grace of Allah, most of our members’ appreciation, and the average number of the new members who join the English and Arabic services is increasing, and now has reached 30 profiles a day. This is a sample positive message from one of our members:

“As-Salaamu Aleikum Brothers Administrators, I would very much like to thank and congratulate You for your sincerity and humbleness in dealing with your clients, would it not have been a Muslim web, I wouldn’t have understood your good free service, especially at this epoch of time, (akheery zzaman) such a service is unavailable, right from the beginning, I appreciated your services, since I am too slow with computers, I was just looking for the appropriate time, my words are weaker, can not equal the effort you are doing to help Islam and Muslims. Even if I don’t succeed in finding a Spouse through your web, (that will be due arrangement of ALLAH), still I will be grateful to ALLAH and You, I pray to ALLAH S.W.T., To make You successful in your ambitions, both, in this world and in the Hereafter. Make dua for me as well.”

And the following is another sample of one of our lucky members, Brother “Mark”  from the U.S.A. He was the first member to come back and convey his full happy experience, and thus his story is considered the first full successful story the English Matrimonial service has received. Explaining how his story started and where it reached, Brother “Mark” says:

“I happened on to your website by mistake to be honest...as I was searching for Islamic educational websites and your link was displayed.  I saw the matrimonial link and decided to submit my profile...never thinking that I would meet my help-meet and partner for life. She is everything that I prayed for and more. Her family was so respectful and loving to me, as I was to them. I am now honored to be part of a family that truly accepts me for the person I am and the husband of their daughter.  I spent 3 weeks in Lebanon and they were the absolute most spiritual, happiest moments in my entire life. Alhamdulellah (Praise be to Allah)...we signed the contract (of marriage) on 12/24/02.  Insha'Allah, she will be in the U.S. within 6 months, as I have already begun the visa process for her. This was the greatest experience of my life!”

He ends his e-mail expressing his gratefulness to Allah and to IslamOnline.net for bringing them together:

“Thank you for being the vehicle for gathering us together and know that Allah(swt) is the All-Knower and He wills what he pleases!  In this case, Allah (swt) showed his mercy on us and gathered my wife to me and I have never been as happy in all of my life!”