And if a man marries off his young son for a mahr equal to the customary amount or more, the contract is valid and the debt is upon the husband; and if the husband is unable to pay, the father is not liable for it.

The Shaykh :"And if a man marries off his young son for a mahr equal to the customary amount or more, the contract is valid and the debt is upon the husband; and if the husband is unable to pay, the father is not liable for it" This refers to a man who proposed a marriage for his young son who has not reached fifteen years of age, meaning he has not reached thirteen years of age, but if he were to marry, his condition would improve. So he proposed a woman for him. The father of the woman said, "Your son is young. We want to raise our daughter under his care, and now you want him to be raised under the care of our daughter because he is young. But since you are obligated, the customary mahr is ten thousand, and I want fifteen thousand from you. That is, the mahr for my proposed daughter is ten thousand, but I want fifteen thousand from you to compensate for the deficiency of the groom." The father said, "There is no objection. The mahr is fifteen thousand." Is it valid or not? It is valid. And who is obligated? Is the father obligated or the husband? The author says "the contract is valid and the debt is upon the husband". The husband is a poor student who has not yet... acquired wealth. We say, "It is not our concern, because the one who owes the mahr is the one who enjoys the wife, and the father has no share in that. The mahr is the price of enjoyment." Now, the father of the woman said, "The boy is poor now." We said, "You are the one who made a mistake. Why did you not say to the father, 'And you guarantee it'?" If he had said at the time of the contract, "You guarantee it," the father would be obligated to guarantee it. But since he did not say that, and he knew the son was young and owned nothing, and he said, "You did this to yourself." Now, it becomes clear that the son is unable to pay, and the man who married him off thought he was wealthy, but it turned out he was unable to pay. Does the father guarantee it? The father does not guarantee it. For this reason, he said "and if the husband is unable to pay, the father is not liable for it". The correct view is that the father guarantees it, unless he disclaims the guarantee; otherwise, he guarantees it, because he is the one who proposed the marriage for his son, and the custom is that the father pays the mahr for his son. This is the custom. It is said that if the father guaranteed it and said, "Marry him for fifteen thousand, and I guarantee it," he is obligated to guarantee it. Otherwise, he is not. This is the school of thought (madhhab). The correct view is that the father guarantees it absolutely, unless he conditions the disclaimer, such as if the father says, "I have nothing, and the mahr for your daughter is upon her husband; she has no claim against me." In that case, there is no doubt that he is absolved. Otherwise, he is the guarantor.