arranged marriage

My mum calls them Introduced marriages.

I'll try and make this as short as possible but there's a lot to fit in so please bear with me.

Please also note that the term "forced" doesn't come into this. if anything were to happen it would be consensual and neither of us will have been pressured into the marriage.

Ok so I'm a male and of Pakistani heritage (though I haven't been there in 18 years, since I was an infant). I've only had one girlfriend ever and she was stunning. I mean, and I'm not exaggerating, she really was a 10/10. This girl was of mixed race and my family are very culture orientated and would've never accepted her unless she convered to Islam and I really wasn't even considering asking her that because I didn't want to suggest that I'd only marry her if she was a Muslim and put pressure on. I was so infaturated with this girl that I was prepared to get disowned by my parents to stay with her even if that meant them kicking me out of the house and never speaking to me again.

All this was before I found out that in the 4 months that the girl was with me she had a threesome with two guys and a one night stand with another guy. I was obviously in shock because I couldn't believe that I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life and put a girl before my family. (My parents don't know of this girl and have no idea I was in a relationship btw). As devastated as I was I felt so relieved that I learnt this lesson early on and promised myself not to put a girl over my family again.

Aaagh I didn't want this to be so long so I'll just bulletpoint from now on

-mum brought up the topic of marriage to me and told me that someone her approached her about their daughter marrying me
-I'm leaving for uni and mum says as long as I'm in education I don't have to get married but that I would have to get "engaged" to this girl next year, my first year of uni
-met the girl, very good looking and friendly but shy
-her parents are super rich and she's their eldest daughter... her dad kept on telling me that all his wealth is mine for some reason... (I wouldn't take their money)

So now I have to tell my mum within the next couple of months if I want to marry this girl or not. Apparently she has said yes so they're only waiting for my answer. After what that girl did to me I feel very bitter about dating again and can't trust a girl...:/ and this girl will never cheat. A year ago I would've never considered arranged marriage but that girl really put me off dating and am now considering saying yes...

What should I do?

...and this is why religion is stupid.

I'm 18. My degree is 4 years long and I'll probably be doing a Masters after that do I won't get married until 24-25.

To the people saying meet her with people present:

She's very shy. It took me a while to make her feel comfortable and to get her talking freely. I seriously doubt that with another person present she would utter a word that gives me a clue on how she normally is. I wouldn't feel comfortable either having people with us. After I say yes to the engagement I can spend time with her but what if then I grow to not like her? I cant just break an engagement like that.

Ok... i'm bengali myself, so I have heard this stuff a lot..
But it depends on what you want, you shouldn't make a decision when your not calm and thinking properly, soo i suggest you cool off ..
Plus as your Muslim(guessing), have you thought about going on Islamic dates with her so you get to know her before you decide?
The reason he's saying he'll give you his wealth is because your gonna look after her and that plus your 18 so he knows you aint got money

Yes I'm a Muslim but clearly not a very good one.

And I'm sorry if I piss any good Muslims off but the idea of an "Islamic date" sounds very depressing to me. Idk why. :/

The Holy Prophet (saw) said that when choosing a partner you should look at three ( or four I can't remember) things: Beauty, wealth, character (and virtue) the last two/one being the most important. In the end, it's your decision however.

How is growing to love somebody stupid?

What he said exactly was:
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "A woman may be married for four reasons: her wealth, her lineage, her beauty or her religion; choose the one who is religious, and let you be successful!" [Bukhari and Muslim]

So pick her based on how pious she is most of all, everything else comes last

I, for one, think you should be able to fall in love with somebody before you have marry them, instead of having to hope that you don't hate the person you are supposed to spend the rest of your life with.

Then again, I don't feel the need to be an apologist for backward religious traditions, like so many Western people do.

You can call it "backward" or you can call it different. Nobody should force an arranged marriage and "love marriages" are allowed

Oh how magnanimous of Islam, just make sure you don't see the other person without the presence of adults! Should be nice and easy to get to know, like, and love your spouse when her dad is sitting across from you the entire time...

I guess that's the problem. I'm leaving for uni this year to Birmingham while they all live in London so I won't be able to see her. Even if I could I doubt her dad would let me just date her since they're also strict Muslims. :/ I'm getting the feeling that they don't want to be lead on and then risk me saying no and so want a definite answer and then to get us engaged.

It doesn't have to be her dad.