A man treats his daughters harshly, does not provide for them, and refuses to marry them off; is it permissible for the daughters not to visit him, and what is the ruling on his actions toward them?

The questioner : She says that she is a twenty-four-year-old girl and the eldest of her siblings. She has three younger sisters and two younger brothers. She says: "My problem is that my father divorced my mother fourteen years ago and placed us in an orphanage from that time on. He did not visit us or spend on us. When the school principal asked him for our allowance because we are not orphans—he is alive—he told her to let them beg in the streets. My mother used to give us an allowance and support us with everything we needed, knowing that she has been married for ten years. We are now grown up and have completed our university education. At this age, people must come forward to propose marriage to us, so we send them to our father, and he says to them: 'I have no daughters to marry off, and I do not want to marry anyone off.' I would like to say to you that we do not visit our father because, first, he does not pray, and second, because of the bad treatment we received from him throughout our lives and his denial of his fatherhood toward us. Is this position we have taken regarding our father pleasing to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), or is there a sin on us for it? And what is the ruling on what he did to us, and on his turning away suitors from us?"

The Shaykh : This question includes two issues.
The first issue is regarding the father, and the second issue is regarding you.
As for your father, if his situation is as you described and he does not pray, then he has no guardianship over you, because by abandoning prayer he has become a disbeliever, and a disbeliever has no guardianship over a Muslim . You can contact your brothers, if they have reached maturity and are of sound judgment, to determine a suitable match and the interests of the marriage, and they are the ones who will marry you off. If your brothers have not reached maturity, then your paternal uncles, then the closest of the residuary male heirs. Your father, as long as he is in the state you mentioned in the question, has no guardianship over you; in fact, his guardianship is void.
As for the second issue, regarding your father, I advise him, if he is as you said, to repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and to fulfill the obligatory duties toward you of care and trust, and to marry you off to whoever proposes marriage and is suitable for marriage, by being pleased with his religion and character, due to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): We ask Allah for guidance for us and for him, and we ask Allah for assistance for us and for you.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.