A Friday sermon by the Shaykh on marriage and the vacation period.

The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and from the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. Allah sent him with guidance and the religion of truth. He conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, advised the nation, and struggled in the cause of Allah with true struggle. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, upon his family, upon his Companions, and upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows:
It is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So it is obligatory for the young Muslim, if Allah provides for him and he has a desire for marriage, that he should marry in obedience to the command of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and following the example of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and his brothers among the messengers. Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: If the young man does not find what he needs to marry with, and he has a father who is able to marry him off, then it is upon his father to marry him off. If he does not do so, he is sinful and has fallen into disobedience to Allah, being negligent of His command and negligent of his son’s right. For among the rights of a son over his father, when he needs to marry, is that his father should marry him off, just as the son has the right over his father to feed him, clothe him, and house him. So fear Allah, O fathers. Fear Allah, O fathers whom Allah has made wealthy. Marry off your sons who need marriage, for this is obligatory upon you. And if it is obligatory for fathers who have the ability to marry off their sons who do not have the ability and who have a desire for marriage, then it is also obligatory for those guardians who have daughters to fear Allah, preventing them from marriage except to whom they wish, not to whom those women choose. So fear Allah, O servants of Allah. Fear Allah the Exalted regarding the women over whom Allah has placed you as guardians, for this guardianship is a trust that Allah has placed upon you, and He will ask you about it on the Day of Resurrection.
O guardians, fulfill the trust regarding these women. Do not control their fate and their future. Do not treat them as if they were merchandise among you, selling them if you are given a price that satisfies you, and holding onto them otherwise. O guardians, the trust of these women is in your hands, and their future in their religion and their worldly life is greater and more noble than that you should look at money and a little bit of living that you enjoy at the expense of your trust. It is obligatory upon you, O guardians, to look at the suitor if he has goodness for the woman and happiness in her religion and her worldly life, in herself and her children. Choose such a person and accept his proposal, for the criterion is character and religion. Beware of preventing the suitor if he is a match in his religion and the woman is pleased with him. Beware of preventing him from accepting him, for that is a loss of the trust and a falling into disobedience. In the hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he said: In this hadith, there is direction and guidance to look at the suitor from only two aspects: religion and character. For religion and character are the foundation by which religion is rectified and life is made happy. The one with religion is righteous in himself, a reformer for his family, in him is goodness and success. If he keeps her, he keeps her with kindness, and if he parts with her, he parts with her with kindness, because he has in him religion and mindfulness of Allah that prevent him from wronging the woman and depriving her of her right. And the one with straight character in his morals becomes a reformer for others; he receives his family with cheerfulness and a pleasant face, and he accustoms them with his words and his state to the noble morals and the high etiquettes.
O guardians: Among the most important things that require care is looking at religion, at the soundness of the creed, and at establishing the pillars of Islam. As for the soundness of the creed, it is that the suitor be a believer in Allah and His Messenger, with nothing reported about him indicating doubt, nor anything indicating his mockery of the religion and its people. He should be one who honors Allah and His Messenger, and one who honors the religion of Allah and the awliya (close friends of Allah), with nothing reported about him indicating mockery of that. For whoever doubts in his faith in Allah, or doubts in his faith in the Last Day, or doubts in his faith in the angels, or the messengers, or the books, or the divine decree, its good and its evil, then he is a disbeliever and it is not permissible to marry him off. And whoever it is known that he mocks Allah or the verses of Allah, then he is a disbeliever and it is not permissible to marry him off, by the saying of Allah the Exalted: But if it is known about this man that he has repented to Allah, honored the religion of Allah, and held fast to the Shari'ah of Allah, then repentance demolishes what came before it. As for establishing the prayer, it is that a person comes to the five prayers in their times, with the minimum that is obligatory in them, believing in their obligation. So whoever denies the obligation of the five prayers or some of them, he is a disbeliever, because he is a denier of Allah and His Messenger and the consensus of the Muslims, except if he is one who recently became a Muslim and does not know about the obligations of the religion; then he is taught. If he is informed of that and then denies it, he is a disbeliever. And if the suitor acknowledges the obligation, acknowledges that the five prayers are obligatory, but he does not pray, then it is not permissible to marry him off, because he is a disbeliever, and a Muslim woman is not lawful for a disbeliever. The evidence of his disbelief is the saying of Allah the Exalted: And the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): And in the hadith, and in the other hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And Abdullah ibn Shaqiq said: So these are the texts of the Book, the texts of the Sunnah, and the saying of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). To which saying do we turn after the indication of the Book and the Sunnah and the sayings of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them)? And this disbelief is the major shirk that takes one out of Islam, necessitating killing in this world and eternal abode in the Fire in the Hereafter.
O Muslims, you must select the one with religion and character, for this is what you have been commanded to do. Beware, beware that the worldly life deceives you and you choose it over religion and character, for these women are a trust in your hands. So fear Allah, O Muslims, and choose for your daughters, your sisters, your mothers, and all those over whom you have guardianship, those over whom you have guardianship, choose for them the one with religion and character. Do not rush in acceptance. Search thoroughly from all aspects, for people today may hide many of their conditions, and it requires caution and precise looking. And if it becomes clear to you of his rectitude in his religion and his rectitude in his character, do not hesitate for the blink of an eye.
O Muslims: O guardians, some of the guardians control their daughters and the women under their guardianship, preventing them from suitable suitors despite the woman’s pleasure with the suitor. This is forbidden for him. And we used to speak by phone with some women complaining about their guardians, where a suitable person proposes, but her guardian controls the matter, but her guardian controls that and does not marry her off. So fear Allah, O Muslims, do not transgress against the rights of these women, for they will be your opponents on the Day of Resurrection, except if the woman is pleased with a suitor whose religion is not pleasing, such as being pleased with a person who does not pray, or a person who drinks intoxicants, or a person who practices sins that compromise honor and religion. In this case, it is for her guardian, indeed it is obligatory upon her guardian in this case to prevent her from marrying him, even if she remains without a husband for her whole life, and there is no blame on him for that, because this is the requirement of the trust that he has carried.
O Muslims, O guardians: Just as it is not permissible for you to prevent women from marrying a man whose religion and character are pleasing to them if they are willing, so it is not permissible for you to force them to marry a man they do not wish to marry. This is because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade that and said: . There is no difference in this between the father and other guardians; the father does not force his daughter, even if she is a virgin, to marry a man she does not desire, nor does the brother or any other relative. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So fear Allah, O servants of Allah. Do not marry your women to those who are not suitable matches for them. Do not prevent them from marrying suitable matches. Do not force them to marry a man they do not wish to marry. Let not your concern be wealth and this world, for that is foolishness. Indeed, that is foolishness. It is foolishness for a man to lower himself by marrying off his daughter for the sake of money and rejecting a suitor for the sake of money, until he accepts a suitor and the woman and her family are pleased with him, but when the dowry is sent and it is less than what they want, they reject him and refuse to marry this suitor after having accepted him, as if the only objective is money, and as if the woman is a commodity to be bought and sold. The matter of marriage is greater than what these fools desire, for it is the bond of kinship in the connection between people, as Allah the Exalted said: . And I say, I say to these guardians whose only concern is money: You have no right to any part of the woman's dowry. The entire dowry of the woman belongs to her. It is not permissible for her brother, nor her uncle, nor her mother, nor her father to condition for himself any part of it, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) informed us that the dowry is for her. However, after the marriage contract is concluded, there is no harm if her father or her brother honors her with a gift. But conditioning this in the contract is not permissible, and it is not permissible for the one who conditions it to take anything from it. Allah the Exalted says: , making the dowry for the women. This means that their guardians have no right to it, even if they are the closest people to them. So fear Allah, O Muslims, and magnify the status of the trust, and do not throw yourselves into destruction. And do good, for Allah loves those who do good. May Allah bless you and me in the great Qur'an, and benefit me and you with what is in it of verses and wise remembrance. I say this and I seek forgiveness from Allah for myself and for you and for all Muslims from every sin. So seek His forgiveness, for He is the Oft-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, much praise, good and blessed. And I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah alone, with no partner, a testimony by which its speaker hopes for salvation on the Day he meets Him. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. May Allah send prayers and peace upon him, his family, his companions, and those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment. As for what follows: O Muslim brothers, fear Allah the Exalted, and thank Him for the blessing of children He has bestowed upon you, for the blessing of children is among the great blessings of Allah, whether they are sons or daughters, whether they are sons or daughters. This is because when Allah the Exalted blesses a person with what pleases him, it is a blessing for which he must thank Allah, and he must seek Allah's help in thanking Him for it. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) advised Mu'adh ibn Jabal to say: .
O Muslims: Fear Allah the Exalted regarding this blessing. Watch over your sons and daughters. Fulfill the right of Allah upon you concerning them. Teach them and educate them. Enjoin upon them what is right and forbid them what is wrong. And in this vacation, our children will have a great deal of free time, so we must observe what our children do during this vacation. If there are summer centers run by trustworthy people, then it is recommended that the youth enter these centers to preserve their time and to gain the benefit obtained in these centers from lectures, study, guidance, and other things known in the programs of these centers. And likewise, strive to enroll them in Qur'an memorization circles in the mosques, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And whoever helps someone to learn the Qur'an, he will receive a share of this excellence.
O Allah, help us with the trust You have placed upon us. O Allah, help us with it until we fulfill it in the manner that pleases You, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah, rectify our hearts, and rectify our deeds, and rectify our offspring, and rectify our society, and rectify our rulers, O Possessor of Majesty and Honor, O Most Merciful of the merciful. And know, O Muslims, that the best of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation in the religion is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance. So hold fast to the community, for the hand of Allah is upon the community, and whoever separates separates into the Fire. And know that Allah commanded you with a command in which He began with Himself, and He said, Exalted is He, the Wise: . O Allah, send prayers and peace upon Your slave and Your Messenger Muhammad. O Allah, grant us the love of him and following him, outwardly and inwardly. O Allah, let us die upon his religion. O Allah, gather us in his group. O Allah, let us drink from his pool. O Allah, admit us into his intercession. O Allah, gather us with him in the Gardens of Pleasure with those upon whom You have bestowed favor from among the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous. O Allah, grant us the pleasure of looking at Your Noble Face, O Possessor of Majesty and Honor.