She has a physical defect that affects the hearing in one ear. Should she tell her fiancé about that?

 

I have a friend who has a physical defect in one ear, but it is not noticeable in her day to day dealings unless someone speaks in an unclear voice on the side where that ear is, then she cannot hear it. She has refused numerous marriage proposals for this reason, but now she is engaged to someone but she has not told him about this. She is afraid that if she tells him, he will leave her, and the time for their wedding is drawing close. If that happens it may give her a complex, and she will never agree to get married. Should she tell him and accept whatever happens or should one her relatives tell him, or should she not say anything because he will never notice?.

Praise be to Allaah.

If the
matter is as you describe, then your friend has to tell her fiancé about
this defect, or one of her relatives must tell him, so that he will have
full knowledge of the matter, because not telling him is deceiving him, and
whatever Allaah has decreed will happen. No one knows where goodness lies.
We ask Allaah to bless her with a righteous husband. 

If the
husband finds out later on that his wife cannot hear well in one of her
ears, and that she was suffering from that before she got married and did
not tell him, that may upset him and he may regard it as deceit, and he may
hate his wife because of that. So she has to tell him now, hoping that the
marriage will last and so as to set things straight and so as to ward off
any negative consequences. 

The Standing
Committee for Issuing Fatwas was asked: I have a sister who
is affected by the evil eye, and
someone has proposed marriage to her. Do I have to tell him that she is
affected by the evil eye? If I do not tell him, am I regarded as deceiving
him? 

They
replied: 

The guardian
(wali) has to explain to the one who is proposing marriage any defects or
sicknesses that are present in the woman concerned, if the man is not aware
of that, so that he will have full knowledge, because not telling him about
that is deceiving him, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah
be upon him) said: “Whoever deceives us is not one of us.” End quote. 

Fataawa
al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (18/62). 

And Allaah
knows best.