PETALING JAYA, Dec 3 — Scandal-ridden preacher Nik Ahmad Farhan Nik Mohamad said he was forced to turn down the proposals of 18 women before finally tying the knot with his second wife.

Nik Farhan, who rose to fame as the second season winner of TV3’s religious programme Da’i, was previously embroiled in controversy after a friend and confidante of his first wife accused him of marrying his second partner in secret.

He has now come forward with an explanation in an attempt to quell the rage of social media users.

The 29-year-old claims it was divine kismet when he met his second wife, who is a single mum-of-eight, while on a pilgrimage in Mecca.

"I’m being honest when I say that 18 other women have proposed to me throughout the years after I married my first wife.

"It was easy for me to turn them down but I didn’t have the strength to say ‘no’ to the 19th woman.

"Her aura reminded me of the love that bloomed between Prophet Muhammad and Siti Khadijah,” he told mStar.

The Kelantan-born preacher added that his first wife, Fatin Nurul Ain, has an open mind when it comes to polygamy as she had once asked Nik Farhan to take on one of her friends as a second spouse.

In a now-deleted Facebook post, Fatin admitted that she felt "disappointed, angry, and stressed” after hearing of Nik Farhan’s impromptu wedding in Islam’s holy city.

Her friend Ches Al-Maliki then uploaded a lengthy Facebook rant saying the marriage was carried out without Fatin’s approval.

Nik Farhan later retaliated by lodging a police report against Ches and plans to sue her for slander.

In his latest Instagram update, the preacher claimed that kindness and sincerity is always met with cynicism as a result of living in the "end of days”.