Dissolute guardian does not lose his guardianship
23-4-2009 | IslamWeb
Question:
al salamalikom, I got married last year fora girl that is really nice, her story is, her dad used to beat her up all the time, doesn't want her to complete school, and she talked to her dad a couple of times to stop hitting her, but the father never lestin, she told her grandparents about him, but nothing worked out. finally she decide to leave the houseand never come back, and then we decideto get marry and we did, and i'm taking care of her and giving her the best i can, from what she told me that her dad does not pray all thetime, of fast in ramadan, but anyway she kept hard to talk to her dad and told him that there is somebody wan't to see you, but he refused to and told her that you will marry the man i will choose for you, your opinion doesnot matter, so will allah yewafqna in this marriage, and whatshould she do about with her dad.?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
If this marriage took place without the consent of the guardian of this girl, then it is a void marriage because the consent of the guardian is a condition for the validity of the marriage contract according to the preponderant opinion of the scholars 
; for more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 83629.
Therefore, this marriage should be invalidated and if you wish to continue the marital life, then you may renew the marriage contract with the consent of the guardian and the presence of two witnesses.
The fact that her guardian is a dissolute person does not make him lose his guardianship over her. Anyway, there is a controversy about this issue but we consider what we mentioned to be the preponderant opinion.
However, a guardian should not refuse a religious man who proposes to marry a girl under his guardianship, but if he refuses to marry her off, then it is not permissible for the girl to marry this man without the consent of her guardian. However, if she fears that her guardian objects to marry her off to a suitable and competent man without a sound reason, then she may take the matter to one of the Islamic centres who adopt the methodology of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah. Then, if it is confirmed to them that her guardian refuses to marry her off without a sound reason, the people who run such centres would marry her off.
As regards the father beating his daughter, if he is hitting her without harm or injustice in order to discipline her, and there is a need for this, then it is permissible. However, if he is beating her just in order to harm her to satisfy his anger and take revenge, then this is not permissible. Even if we presume that this happens, it is not a sound reason for the girl to leave home without any restrictions, but she is permitted to go to a place where she will be safe, like going to her grandfather and the like.
Allaah Knows best.