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Our later teachers who upheld declarations of a woman’s lack of sound financial judgment also differed over the following case: a father appoints a testamentary guardian for his daughter after her marriage has been consummated but before she reaches the threshold fixed for the validity of her transactions. He lives on until she reaches that threshold, and she subsequently dies. Is he bound by the legal effects of that established guardianship? They held two views:
Some considered his testamentary appointment binding upon her, like a renewed declaration of her lack of sound financial judgment, from which she cannot be released unless her sound financial judgment is established through the testimony of upright witnesses.
Others did not consider it binding upon her, unlike a renewed declaration of her lack of sound financial judgment. They likewise held that if a father appoints a testamentary guardian for his daughter while she is a virgin, then marries her off, and she lives with her husband for seven years or more before her father dies, the testamentary appointment ceases to bind her. They also adduced Ashhab’s report from Mālik in the Book of Bequests in al-ʿUtbiyya. I know of no disagreement among them that the guardianship is binding upon her if her father makes the testamentary appointment after her marriage has been consummated, then dies before she reaches the threshold fixed for her release from his guardianship. Nevertheless, the underlying reasoning could plausibly give rise to disagreement here too. As for a father who appoints a testamentary guardian for his daughter while she is a minor or a virgin, then dies while she is still a virgin, before her marriage has been consummated, or after consummation but before the period fixed for her release from his guardianship has elapsed, the guardianship is binding upon her.
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If, however, she is an orphan with a testamentary guardian appointed by her father or a guardian appointed by the judge, she does not leave that guardianship—even if she reaches the age of spinsterhood, or marries and her marriage is consummated, a long period elapses, and her affairs are in good order—until she is released from the bonds of the financial interdiction imposed upon her by means legally sufficient to secure her release. We have explained this earlier. This is the well-known position in the school and the one followed in practice. We have already cited Ibn al-Mājishūn’s view that her position under a testamentary guardian is like her position under her father: she leaves his guardianship upon reaching the age of spinsterhood or marrying—by which he means after a lengthy period and once her sound financial judgment has become evident. This is also transmitted from Mālik by Mutarrif, Ibn ʿAbd al-Hakam, and ʿAbd al-Rahīm.