What is the ruling on a man whose father married him off without his consent or choice?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question : This questioner says that his father contracted a marriage for him with his cousin without her consent, and if the matter is as stated
Answer : If the questioner’s statement is true, then this contract is invalid and not valid, because even the father does not have the right to contract a marriage for his adult, sane son without his consent, because one of the conditions for the validity of a marriage is the consent of both spouses. If the consent of both spouses is a condition for the validity of the marriage, and this husband, the son, is not consenting and has not authorized his father to contract the marriage with his cousin, then the marriage is invalid and was not valid from the start. Consequently, the woman is not in your possession, and it is permissible for her to marry.
However, if your father contracted the marriage for you with this woman, but he asked for your permission and you gave it out of respect, but not out of genuine consent to your father, then the marriage is valid. The marriage is valid and she is your wife. But if you do not desire her, I advise you to divorce her before you consummate the marriage, because if you divorce her before consummating the marriage, you do not need a waiting period. You do not need a waiting period; rather, she is immediately released from you and becomes lawful for other husbands, as Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Ahzab 33:49]. And the statement of some of your companions to you that if you divorce her, how can you be pleased with her marriage while your father is alive, and then you divorce her when he is dead? This is not applicable. There is no blame on you if you consented to her marriage to please your father, and then you left her after his death; there is nothing on you in that, and no blame. And what I advise you to do, if you do not desire her now, is to divorce her. [An-Nisa 4:130]
Answer : If the questioner’s statement is true, then this contract is invalid and not valid, because even the father does not have the right to contract a marriage for his adult, sane son without his consent, because one of the conditions for the validity of a marriage is the consent of both spouses. If the consent of both spouses is a condition for the validity of the marriage, and this husband, the son, is not consenting and has not authorized his father to contract the marriage with his cousin, then the marriage is invalid and was not valid from the start. Consequently, the woman is not in your possession, and it is permissible for her to marry.
However, if your father contracted the marriage for you with this woman, but he asked for your permission and you gave it out of respect, but not out of genuine consent to your father, then the marriage is valid. The marriage is valid and she is your wife. But if you do not desire her, I advise you to divorce her before you consummate the marriage, because if you divorce her before consummating the marriage, you do not need a waiting period. You do not need a waiting period; rather, she is immediately released from you and becomes lawful for other husbands, as Allah the Exalted said:
O You who have believed, when you marry believing women and then divorce them before you have touched them, then there is not for you any waiting period to count concerning them
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِذَا نَكَحْتُمُ الْمُؤْمِنَاتِ ثُمَّ طَلَّقْتُمُوهُنَّ مِن قَبْلِ أَن تَمَسُّوهُنَّ فَمَا لَكُمْ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ عِدَّةٍ تَعْتَدُّونَهَاBut if they separate [by divorce], Allah will enrich each [of them] from His abundance
وَإِن يَتَفَرَّقَا يُغْنِ اللَّهُ كُلًّا مِّن سَعَتِهِ
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، لقاء[36 من 65] ما حكم من زوجه أبوه بغير رضى واختيار؟!! الشيخ ابن عثيمين -مشروع كبار العلماء — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.
