It fills life with love and loyalty...

It fills life with love and loyalty, health and friendship, and simplicity and sweet affection. Parents should remember what they preferred when they were young themselves. They wished to marry with someone from a family of an equal rank. They wished that both families would avoid undergoing excessive, unbearable expenses. So they should prefer the same things for their children.

By putting aside undue expectations and avoiding heavy expenses, they should provide the means for the marriage of their children. God grants a great reward to those who provide the means for marriage. Parents should be the first ones to provide the means for the marriage of their children, and follow it all the way through with love, nobility and kindness.

The Prophet (Pbuh) said: Whoever strives to provide the means for the marriage of believing men and women to the point that God will join them in marriage, will receive a thousand companions with big, beautiful and lustrous eyes in Heaven as a reward. His reward is equal to one year of worship for each step taken or word uttered.

[Marriage in Islam , p.18] How can parents who are too strict about the marriage of their children deprive themselves of such a great reward from God, while they could easily provide the means for the marriage? How can they respond to their children in God's Just Court on the Day of Judgment if the children become corrupted, suffer from physical or mental shock or get psychologically distressed?

Imam Musa, the son of Jafar (Pbuh), requested his noble aunt by mail to send some property put aside for contributing to the nuptial gift of the spouse of Muhammad, the son of Jafar She immediately did so as soon as she received the letter. The letter stated: There exists in the Hereafter a divine shelter.

Only the Prophet, the guardian appointed by his will, those who free a slave or provide for the payment of a believer's debt, or marry off a believing unmarried man can benefit from this shelter. [Marriage in Islam , p.18-19] The Commander of the Faithful Ali (Pbuh) stated: The greatest sin is stealing a Muslim's property, and the best form of intervention is intervening in marriage.

[Ibid] Imam Sadiq (Pbuh) said: Whoever marries off an unmarried man, will be amongst those who will receive God's Favor and Mercy in the Hereafter.