What is the age at which a boy is suitable to be a mahram?

The questioner : Regarding the mahram, what is the limit?

Another questioner : ... reaching puberty, that is it.

The Shaykh : What is the limit? And this is something that draws attention here. What is the limit in terms of what? Age?

The questioner : The age.

The Shaykh : The age is the age of discernment, not the age of puberty. That is, he has issues regarding women and men and the like, so he understands. For example, if his relative does not want to deviate or separate from him, he becomes aware that perhaps there is something there. This is the one who has this discernment who is suitable to be a mahram.

The questioner : There is evidence.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : That is, there is evidence in it.

The Shaykh : The evidence here, in the pattern I told you earlier, is not that every issue has "Allah said" or "The Messenger of Allah said." Rather, it is opinion and derivation. As Ali said when he was asked, "Did the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) give you, O People of the House, knowledge that the people do not have?" He said, "O Allah, no, except what is in the sheath of my sword." And he produced a hadith in which Madinah is a sanctuary, and in it also that wounds and retaliation. Then he said—and this is the point—"and understanding that Allah grants to a servant in His Book." So in many cases, the evidence is derivation, and not everyone shares in understanding this derivation, even among the people of knowledge. And it is narrated that al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) visited Muhammad ibn al-Hasan in his house. It is known that Muhammad ibn al-Hasan was a graduate of his teacher Abu Hanifah, and that...
The student : Shaykh ... .

The Shaykh : That is, in the Syrian expression, they say that the earth is inhabited.
The student : We say there are clouds in the sky, Shaykh.

The Shaykh : There are clouds in the sky.
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, so let him be happy, and others too. We are among the lovers of Abu Hanifah.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.

The Shaykh : And we honor him and revere him. And part of our honoring and revering him is that we follow him in his principles and knowledge. One of them is: "If a hadith is authentic, then it is my madhhab." This is from his generosity. The point is: When al-Shafi'i visited Muhammad ibn al-Hasan in his house and came... he prayed the 'Isha' prayer. The Imam al-Shafi'i placed his side for sleep, but Muhammad ibn al-Hasan stood up to pray the night prayer. In the morning, an occasion arose, and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan mentioned al-Shafi'i's sleep regarding the night prayer. How is this, when standing in night prayer is the emblem of the righteous? So Imam al-Shafi'i said, "I am sincere that I wasted it, but I was not sleeping. I was thinking about the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him): So I derived from it seventy rulings." Yes, these seventy rulings are something that usually only a few individuals among people can do. We return to your question. The evidence is taken from knowing the goal and the wisdom of the wise Lawgiver in making it a condition for the woman who wants to travel to have a mahram. What is the goal? Do you know? You will learn, if Allah wills. The answer is without "I don't know" or "I know." Do you know what the goal is?

The questioner : I do not know.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. It is that the woman is with [a mahram], meaning it is considered protection for her so that she does not lean to the right or left. Do you understand how? That is, this is completely a possible answer to a questioner's question regarding the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): If she has a mahram with her, this threat does not come unless the Shaytan is the fourth, right? Do you know what the reason is for the Messenger (peace be upon him) considering the seclusion of a woman with a strange man, and that there is a third who is the Shaytan? Do you know what the reason is?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, do you know? Don't take it as a rule and say "I don't know."

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, ... there is an apparent wisdom here, which is that the seclusion of this woman with that strange man facilitates the entry of the Shaytan between them. That is, like what was said in a poem I forgot, completely, when he saw... al-Qanbar, so he said to her: "The sky is clear for you, wake up and sing." So this and that, when the sky was clear for them, they might reach the greatest sin, unlike if there was a mahram, then the situation would be reversed, completely. So we understand from this hadith that seclusion is forbidden because it facilitates the path to sin. Likewise, the travel of a woman without a mahram facilitates for her the path to sin. And on the contrary, completely, when there is a man in the seclusion who is specifically from the woman's relatives who is jealous of her honor, and when there is also a mahram with the traveling woman, the aforementioned fear weakens and weakens until it becomes withered. Do you know this how?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So we know the reason or the 'illah in the wise Lawgiver's prevention of a woman from traveling alone or from secluding in a house with a strange man. If the third person is present, that fear is removed. So the ruling, as the jurists say, revolves with the 'illah in existence and absence. The 'illah of the prohibition of seclusion is the entry of the Shaytan between them. If a person from the relatives of this woman is present, the 'illah is gone, and with the going of the 'illah goes the ma'lul, which is the ruling of the prohibition of seclusion. Likewise, there is in travel. And among the matters that we need to question in our present age is that some people today are lenient in allowing their daughters or wives to travel on planes without a mahram, on the pretext of what? That the fear is safe. Is the speech understood up to here?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Good, but the truth is that the fear is still present, as evidenced first by incidents that occurred, with the possibility of mentally conceiving the matter that the fear is still present. There are some incidents, the most important of which is a person from our friends there in Syria. A man was affected in his honor because his wife traveled by plane from Damascus to Deir al-Zor, meaning she was moving from one town to another in the middle of Syria, not from Syria to the Hijaz or another far town, no, in the same Syria. The story is that this woman boarded the plane with the knowledge of her husband, as is customary in receiving travelers, that the plane would be in the town where he was waiting for her after an hour or two. So he went out to receive her, and the hour and two hours and the hours passed, and there was no plane. Then the news came to him that the pilot, while flying, announced to the passengers that the plane had a malfunction and was forced to deviate from its flight path, which was from Damascus to Deir al-Zor. He was taking the northeast, so now he would reverse the route and take the northwest to the city of Latakia, which is a town on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, due to a malfunction that occurred in the plane, so he was forced to land there for repair. The next day, the plane continued its journey from Latakia in a straight line east to Deir al-Zor. And there, naturally, the man met his wife. This delay bothered him, so he investigated and scrutinized until he obtained her confession of what follows: The flight attendant saw the woman and her beauty, so she conveyed her news to the plane's officer and some of his aides. So they agreed with her to tempt her for them, and so it was the result that the woman agreed with temptations we do not know what they are. The important thing is that the pilot of the plane changed the course of the plane in order to spend, as they say today in the language of the present age, a red night with that woman. So this trip was the cause of the man divorcing her. On the pretext of what? There is no close distance, half an hour or an hour between Damascus and Deir al-Zor. And for this incident, there are many similar ones, among which one occurred in Riyadh, where the man there in Riyadh received a telegram from his wife in Egypt that she would be in Riyadh on such a plane at such an hour. The telegram fell into the hands of one of the employees there who look at telegrams in order to...
The student : Praise be to Allah.

The Shaykh : May Allah have mercy on you. The group concealed the telegram from the husband and sent a message in his name saying, "We are waiting for you," but I am unable to go out; some of my companions will meet you. They then picked her up, put her in a car, and took her out into the open, where they satisfied their lust with her. This happens very often, and very frequently indeed. Therefore, one must adhere to the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): . As for this woman, the witness, after the answer you are seeking has not yet come to you—if this woman had been with a mahram, even if he was not of legal age but was a mubayyid (one who distinguishes right from wrong) who knows the cunning of women and the slipping and sliding that befalls them, none of these harms would have occurred at all. So the evidence is understanding the 'illah (operative cause) of the text: why was the mahram prescribed? It is to protect the woman and to stand between her and any deviation she might intend. This mahram, even if he has not yet reached the age of legal responsibility, but is a mubayyid, stands between her and the evil she intends, just as if he were an adult. There is no difference, because the objective is the ability to distinguish. From this, we derive that if there is a mahram who is an adult but is one of the simple-minded people who have seen the 'awrah (nakedness) of women after reaching the age of puberty, his situation does not qualify him to be a mahram, because the objective is not achieved by him. I hope I have made this clear.