What is your opinion on the custom of not marrying the younger daughter until the older one is married?
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The questioner : This custom, which some guardians of girls may adopt, of not marrying the younger one even if she is proposed to before the older one, is there anything wrong with it?
The Shaykh : As for this custom you mentioned, it is a bad custom, and it is not permissible for anyone to prevent a woman who has been proposed to, where the suitor is a suitable match and she has consented, on the grounds that her older sister has not married. This is an encroachment on the rights of the woman who has been proposed to. What is her fault that she is prevented from marrying until the older one marries? Perhaps Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) will not facilitate a husband for the older one. The proposal to the older woman is not a certainty, but rather a possibility. Wasting the future of the younger daughter for the sake of the older one is a crime and an error, and it is not permissible, given her consent and satisfaction with the suitor and his being a suitable match for her.
The questioner : May Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : As for this custom you mentioned, it is a bad custom, and it is not permissible for anyone to prevent a woman who has been proposed to, where the suitor is a suitable match and she has consented, on the grounds that her older sister has not married. This is an encroachment on the rights of the woman who has been proposed to. What is her fault that she is prevented from marrying until the older one marries? Perhaps Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) will not facilitate a husband for the older one. The proposal to the older woman is not a certainty, but rather a possibility. Wasting the future of the younger daughter for the sake of the older one is a crime and an error, and it is not permissible, given her consent and satisfaction with the suitor and his being a suitable match for her.
The questioner : May Allah reward you.