According to the established school, the answer is yes: he may contract the marriage for him so that she may attend to his needs. Yet, if we were to hold that it is not valid, on the grounds that these needs can be met by hiring this woman to attend to him, rather than obliging him to take a wife whose maintenance he must provide, who will inherit from him if he dies, and to whom other consequences are attached—such a view would have some basis. Thus, obliging this minor to something that is not necessary for him, when his interests can be attended to in another way, is open to question.

If he is close to puberty, however, then his permission is required, because once he comes to understand the interests served by marriage, he can be asked for his permission. We shall see, Allah willing, that in the chapter on marriage, a boy of nine and a girl of nine may give permission, because they understand the interests of marriage.

Question: If a father marries off his minor son for his benefit, does the son have the option to annul the marriage upon reaching puberty?

Answer: There is a view in the established school that he has the option to annul it. In that case, the father is liable for the dowry. This is the difference between saying that he has the option and saying that he has the right to divorce: if he divorces her, he himself is liable for the dowry. The sound view is that he has no such option, because the father’s action is valid under the Sacred Law. If the son wishes to separate from this wife, he may divorce her.

His statement, “And the virgin, even if legally competent,” means that the father of a virgin may marry her off even without her consent, even if she is legally competent—that is, an adult of sound mind.

His statement, “even if legally competent,” indicates a point of disagreement. Thus, if her father says to her, “I want to marry you to So-and-so,” and she explicitly says, “No, I do not want So-and-so,” he says, “I will marry you to him, and I do not care,” and forces her into marriage against her will, even though she does not want him;