the Messenger of Allah, would she say, “No”?! Certainly not—this is as clear as the sun. So does this hadith provide any evidence for them?! It contains no evidence.

If someone says: “If she is young, her permission is not required, unlike an adult woman,”

we reply: You yourselves say, “even if she is legally accountable”—meaning that she is an adult of sound mind, among the most intelligent of people, and twenty or thirty years old—yet you maintain that her consent is not required. Thus, you have no evidence in this hadith.

Moreover, we agree with you if you can produce someone like the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and someone like Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her. Is that possible for them?! It is not possible. So we say: Glory be to Allah, the Magnificent! How can we rely on this proof, which is no proof at all?!

Yet we have evidence from the Quran: “O you who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit women against their will.” [al-Nisa: 19] In the pre-Islamic period of ignorance, when a man died leaving behind a wife, his cousin would marry her against her will (1).

There is also an explicit, authentic proof from the sunnah: the general wording of the Prophet’s ﷺ statement, “A virgin woman is not to be married until her permission is sought” (2), and his specific statement, “A virgin’s father must seek her permission” (3). If we were to say that her father has the right to compel her, then seeking her permission would serve no purpose. What benefit is there in asking, “Would you like us to marry you to this man?” only for her to say, “I do not consent. He is an immoral man,” or, “He is a suitable match, but I do not want him,” and then to be told that she will be compelled?! This contradicts the text.