Short answer
Yes. Marrying a divorced or widowed woman, or a man who was married before, is fully halal, and most of the Prophet's ﷺ wives had been married before. Marrying someone who once committed zina is also valid in the Hanafi school, especially after they have repented. Virginity is not a condition of nikah.
Nikah with a previously married person is permissible without any dislike. Nikah with someone who has committed zina is valid, though choosing a chaste and religious spouse is better, and past sins that were repented from should not be raised. If the woman is pregnant from zina, special rules apply.
Other madhhabs
- Hanbali
- Marriage to a woman known to have committed zina is not valid until she repents and it is clear she is not pregnant.
Explanation
Islam attaches no shame to a previously married woman. Khadijah had been married before she married the Prophet ﷺ, and so had Sawdah, Umm Salamah and others among his wives. Jabir married a previously married woman so that she could care for his young sisters. The Prophet asked him, gently teasing, why he had not married a young girl, then approved his reason.
Virginity is not a condition. A nikah does not depend on it, and bleeding on the first night is not a test of it in fiqh. Many women do not bleed, and a lost hymen has many causes. Asking a future spouse to confess their past is not sunnah. Allah conceals sins, and a person who has repented should keep their past covered. See repenting from zina.
Someone who committed zina. The ayah "the fornicator does not marry except a fornicator" (24:3) is read by the Hanafis and most scholars as a censure, not a condition of validity, so the nikah is valid. The Hanbalis require repentance first. If a woman is pregnant from zina, the man who caused the pregnancy may marry her; if someone else marries her, the Hanafis hold the nikah valid but he must not be intimate with her until she gives birth. Ask a mufti in that case.
What matters most is a person's religion and character now. The sunnah is to "win the one with religion". See conditions of a valid nikah.
The evidence
Quran, Surah An-Noor 24:3
ٱلزَّانِى لَا يَنكِحُ إِلَّا زَانِيَةً أَوْ مُشْرِكَةًۭ وَٱلزَّانِيَةُ لَا يَنكِحُهَآ إِلَّا زَانٍ أَوْ مُشْرِكٌۭ ۚ وَحُرِّمَ ذَٰلِكَ عَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴿٣﴾
The fornicator does not marry except a [female] fornicator or polytheist, and none marries her except a fornicator or a polytheist, and that has been made unlawful to the believers.
Read by most scholars as a censure of persisting in zina, not a bar to marrying someone who repented.
Sahih al-Bukhari 5367
Sahih... فهلا جارية تلاعبها وتلاعبك ...
"Why not a young woman, so you could play with her and she with you?"
Jabir had married a previously married woman, and the Prophet approved his choice.
Sahih al-Bukhari 5090
Sahih... تنكح المرأة لأربع لمالها ولحسبها ولجمالها ولدينها فاظفر بذات الدين ...
"A woman is married for four things: her wealth, her family, her beauty and her religion. Win the one with religion."
Religion, not past status, is the main measure.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Nikah, Fasl fi Bayan al-Muharramat. Marriage to a woman pregnant from zina is valid according to Abu Hanifa and Muhammad, without intimacy until she gives birth.
- al-Mughni (Ibn Qudama), Kitab al-Nikah. The Hanbali condition of repentance and freedom from pregnancy.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.