Salaam

I am a 22 year old Muslim and I am in need of sincere advice. I love this forum and have been a frequent visitor. I do not wish to make personal matters public, but I think this forum will be a guiding light for me in this situation, hence I am posting here.

With the grace of Allah I have found a life partner. We have made a firm commitment to each other and really respect and love each other a lot. I notified my mother of the girl within 1 week of us confessing our love and my mother has no problem with the girl.

We do not see any problems in a future marriage between us, but unfortunately due to our family circumstances at the moment, we cannot marry right now.

We both are ready for marriage and we feel that to maintain a relationship outside (even though its not physical) marriage is not appropriate. We are both mature university graduates and we understand the commitment we have made.

Sorry about the long back ground!

My essential question is this
Is it ok for me and the girl to marry each other with a Nikah, without our parents knowing and then when our parents plan out our marriage to let them know of the Nikah. The Nikah will be essentially secret, but it will entail every responsibility of a husband and wife.

Why do we want to do a Nikah?

1. Its not at all for sexual plesure of any sort.
2. Spiritually and mentally I treat her as my wife and she treats me as her husband.
3. We both feel moral obligation to legitimize the relationship.
4. We both need each other in our lives (it would take me much longer to describe why. Her support has really made me a better person in all aspects of my life).

Why can't we convince our parents to marry us or marry each other publicly without the parents consent?

1. We love and respect our parents and don't want to hurt them.
2. My parents will take this as a negative thing and both their healths are deteriorating. the shock may not be good for them. I am entering medical studies and they might think the girl will "take me away from them".
3. I financially support my family. Again, they might take this move in the wrong way.
4. I have an older brother and 2 younger sisters. I do not want to give them a wrong impression in terms of chosing life partners.

I apologize for the long message, but there is so much more I would like to describe. We have thought about this for a long time and I felt some honest advice from my brothers and sisters might help me.

We have made up our mind about a Nikah...and sincerely speaking, it was mainly so that we don't disobey the commands of Allah.

Thanks a lot.

Your brother