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Is a mother obligated to marry off her son who desires marriage but does not pray, has relationships with girls, chews "shamah," and smokes, especially since she stipulated prayer for him?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a young man is capable of marriage, his mother is not obliged to marry him off. However, if he is in need of marriage and fears falling into sin, then marriage becomes obligatory for him, and he should not obey his mother in abandoning it. If he is not capable, according to some scholars, a wealthy mother is obliged to marry him off, especially among the Hanbalis, who consider safeguarding chastity to be a part of the financial support owed to poor children if they have no father. If the young man neglects prayer out of laziness and not out of denial of its obligation, his mother should marry him off because he is not considered an infidel by the majority of scholars. However, if he abandons prayer out of denial, he is an apostate, and it is not permissible to marry him off. She should advise him and warn him about the seriousness of neglecting prayer and the consequences of forbidden relationships and smoking.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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