She does not have any male relatives on her father’s side; can her mother’s husband or her brother through her mother be her wali (guardian) for the purpose of marriage?
Question

                There is a Sunni Muslim girl who is being cared for by her mother’s husband. She has received a marriage proposal from a compatible young man, but her mother’s husband is refusing to accept any marriage proposal for her because the girl is employed in a government department and he benefits from her salary. Is it permissible for her brothers through her mother to arrange her marriage? Please note that she does not have any full brothers, brothers through her father or paternal uncles, and the qaadi (judge) in our city is an Ithna-‘Ashari Shi‘i who does not rule according to the Qur’aan and Sunnah. Is her primary guardian in this case her mother’s husband or her brothers through her mother?.
Praise be to Allah.In order for 
	the marriage to be valid, it is stipulated that it should be done by the 
	wali (guardian) or his deputy, because the Prophet (blessings and peace of 
	Allah be upon him) said: “There is no marriage except with a guardian and 
	two witnesses of good character.” Narrated by al-Bayhaqi from the hadeeth of 
	‘Imraan and ‘Aa’ishah. Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh 
	al-Jaami‘, no. 7557 
And the 
	Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Any woman who gets 
	married without the permission of her guardian, her marriage is invalid, her 
	marriage is invalid, her marriage is invalid.” Narrated by Ahmad, 24417; Abu 
	Dawood, 2083; al-Tirmidhi, 1102. classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in 
	Saheeh al-Jaami‘, no. 2709 
At-Tirmidhi 
	(may Allah have mercy on him) said: In this regard, what is to be acted upon 
	is the hadeeth of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), 
	“There is no marriage except with a guardian,” according to the scholars 
	among the Companions of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon 
	him), including ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab, ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib, ‘Abdullah ibn 
	‘Abbaas, Abu Hurayrah and others. End quote. 
The woman’s 
	guardian is her father, that his father (her paternal grandfather), then her 
	son, then his son (this applies if she has a son), then her brother through 
	her father and mother, then her brother through her father only, then her 
	brother’s sons (her nephews), then her paternal uncles, then their sons, 
	then the ruler.
Al-Mughni, 
	9/355 
Thus it is 
	known that the mother’s husband is not a guardian for the girl, and her 
	brothers through her mother are not her guardians either, according to the 
	well-known view, because guardianship belongs only to male relatives on the 
	father’s side. 
Ibn Qudaamah 
	(may Allah have mercy on him) said in al-Mughni, 7/13: There is no 
	guardianship for relatives other than male relatives on the father’s side, 
	(so the following cannot be a woman’s guardians): the brother through the 
	mother, the maternal uncle, the mother’s paternal uncle, the maternal 
	grandfather, and so on. This was stated by Ahmad in several places. It is 
	also the view of ash-Shaafa‘i and one of two views narrated from Abu 
	Haneefah. 
The second 
	view is that anyone who may inherit an allocated share or through ta‘seeb 
	(by virtue of being a male relatives on the father’s side) may act as a 
	guardian, because he is one of those who may inherit from her; therefore 
	those who may inherit an allocated share may also act as guardians, just as 
	male relatives on the father’s side may act as guardians.
End quote. 
The brother 
	through the mother may inherit an allocated share, and there is a difference 
	of scholarly opinion as to whether he may act as a guardian in the case of 
	marriage, as you can see. 
The basic 
	principle is that if a woman does not have a guardian, then the Muslim qaadi 
	(judge) may act as her guardian and arrange her marriage; if there is no 
	Muslim judge then the imam of a mosque or a scholar or a Muslim man of good 
	character may act as her guardian and arrange her marriage. 
There is no 
	doubt that her brothers through her mother have more right to acts as 
	guardians and arrange her marriage than the imam of the mosque or any other 
	Muslim, so her brother through her mother should do the marriage contract 
	for her after getting her permission and consent. 
In 
	al-Mawsoo‘ah al-Fiqhiyyah (41/277) it quotes the Maalikis as saying: If 
	a woman has no male relative on her father’s side or former master or 
	sponsor, and there is no shar‘i judge, then her marriage contract may be 
	done by a Muslim man, such as her maternal uncle, maternal grandfather or 
	brother through the mother. They are among the people who may act as her 
	guardian with her permission and consent in that case. End quote. 
And Allah knows best.