Is it derived from the hadith (When there comes to you a man whose religion and character you are pleased with, then marry your daughter to him) that it is obligatory for the father of the daughter to accept the suitor simply because he has religion, even if he is old for the daughter, or poor, or otherwise?

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner: May Allah preserve you, O Shaykh.

The Shaykh : And beware of that.

The questioner : What is the criterion in the matter of marriage in the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): ; meaning, if an old man proposes to a young girl?
The student: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

The questioner : So, if an old man proposes to a young girl... what is the criterion, meaning, do we accept it merely because he has religion?
The student: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
The student : My apologies for the delay.

The Shaykh : May Allah keep you healthy, if Allah wills.
The student : Shaykh Abu Malik said after the 'Isha' prayer.
Another student: Allah has decreed, and what He willed has happened.

The Shaykh : Good, if Allah wills, the first and the last, if Allah wills, so that we may have the opportunity to hear from our brother Abu al-Hasan what he has that benefits everyone, if Allah wills. I say: The father of the daughter must be wise, and part of his wisdom, above all else, is to heed what was mentioned in the hadith I recited earlier, . However, the completion of the father's wisdom is that he observes other matters. These other matters do not concern him, but rather concern the one who is the father of the proposed daughter. You mentioned, for example, if the suitor is old and the proposed daughter is young; this, praise be to Allah, has an easy answer; because it is established in the Sunnah that some of the Companions, indeed from the greatest of the Companions, proposed to Fatimah, and his (peace be upon him) answer was: . So youth is an excuse explicitly stated in the hadith. It is permissible for the father, when someone whose religion and character he is pleased with comes to him, to excuse himself with this excuse mentioned in the hadith concerning the proposal to Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her). But there are other matters for which you will not find a specific proof; rather, we find that the general legal principles and maxims are what help the father, if he is a scholar, or he must, if he is not a scholar, ask the people of knowledge about that proposal in which one of them has proposed to marry his daughter. I am not saying now that the suitor, for example, is old, as the answer to that has already passed, but I assume he is poor, and the daughter and her family are from a house of wealth and affluence, and there may be some luxury for which its owner is not grateful, and this girl has lived in this environment, and the suitor is poor. So the father imagines that if he agrees to the proposal of that poor man, life will not be stable between him and his daughter. Therefore, he may excuse himself from agreeing to the proposal. And on this, many and very many matters are measured. For example, a man comes from a far country to propose from a certain country and wants that if he marries her, he will take her with him, but he knows that not... purely worldly matters, are they a barrier to marriage? Because this contradicts the mentioned hadith: . But if there are other reasons that her father estimates and he is convinced that life will not be stable between the spouses, then he is excused in not agreeing to the marriage.