A young girl came before the holy Prophet perplexed and anxious and exclaimed:
“O Messenger of Allah. . . From the hand of this father...”
“But what has your father done to you” the Prophet asked.
“He has a nephew” she replied “and he has given me in marriage to him before consulting me in the matter”.
“Now that he has done it ” said the Prophet “you should not oppose it. Agree to it and be your cousin’s wife.”
“O Messenger of Allah! I do not like my cousin. How can I be the wife of a man whom I do not like.”
“If you do not like him that is an end to the matter. You have full authority. Go and make the choice of man whom you would like to marry.”
“By chance” the girl finally admitted “I very much like my cousin and do not like any other person but because my father did this thing without asking my consent I have purposely come to put questions on this matter and to get your replies and hear this decision from you and so inform all women that henceforth fathers have no right to take a decision on their own and give their daughter in marriage to anyone they like.”
The great fuqaha’ (Islamic law-scholars) like Shahid ath-thani [1] in Masalik and the writer of Jawahiru‘l-Kalam [2] have narrated this hadith through non-Shi’ah chains of transmission. In pre-Islamic days the Arabs as well as non-Arabs considered fathers to have full authority over their daughters their sisters and in certain cases even over their mothers and in the choice of husbands for them they did not believe that these women should make their own decisions and having a choice in the matter. It was the sole authority and function of the father or brother or if there was no father or brother of their uncle to give them in marriage to whomever they liked.
This right was practiced to such an extent that fathers assumed for themselves this right in respect of a girl still unborn and when she had been born and brought up the man to whom she had been married had the right to take the girl away for himself.
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[1] Zaynu‘d-Din ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al Amili famous as ash-Shahid ath-Thani (the Second Martyr) (911 /l505 — 966/1559). He was killed by emissaries of the Ottoman Sultan of the time who had been sent to summon him to the ottoman court in Istanbul. His Masalik is a commentary on ash Sharayi’u’l-Islam’ compendium of rulings in jurisprudence by the 7th /13th century jurisconsult Jafar ibn al Hasan ibn Yahya al-Hilli better known as Abu‘l Qasim al-Mohaqqiq al-Hilli.
[2] Muhammad Hasan an-Najafi (1192/1778 — 1266/1850) one of the greatest jurisconsults of the last two centuries Jawahiru’l Kalam is a vast commentary (6 large quarto vols) on the same Sharayi’ by al-Mohaqqiq al-Hilli as is Masalik
source : http://www.maaref-foundation.com
