Parents Forcing a Son to Marry Where He Does Not Wish

Question

(1) A relative of ours wants to marry his son into the family of a female relative of his, but the boy is not willing to marry there, and some relatives also do not consider it good to marry there. Yet the parents — who knows under what pressure or greed — want to entangle the boy there by force. If the boy refuses to marry there, will he not be called disobedient, and will he be sinful or not? And can the boy marry of his own accord if the parents are not agreeable? (2)

Answer

(1) Keeping one’s parents pleased and placing their happiness above one’s own is felicity (sa‘ada). But if they want to marry him somewhere to which the son’s disposition is not at all inclined, and he knows that he will not be able to fulfil the marital rights and that the couple will not get along — which will also become a cause of distress for the parents — and out of this…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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