Offer and Acceptance for a Minor Girl through Her Father

Question

(1) I sought a little girl (who was about three years old) in marriage for my small, young son. The girl’s grandfather, in the presence of the girl’s father, accepted the match of this girl for my son. There was no witness to this apart from the girl’s father, the mother and my wife. Are this offer and acceptance (ijab and qabul) valid or not? And is this testimony valid or not? Moreover, this girl, after reaching puberty, is content with this boy. (2)

Answer

(1) Arranging a match is in reality not a nikah but a promise of nikah; no witnesses are needed for it. A promise should be fulfilled as long as there is no strong impediment. (2) If the girl was a minor at the time of the abduction, her offer and acceptance are not valid in the Shari‘a; rather, that nikah is mawquf (suspended) on the permission of the girl’s father.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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