In this section [of Sahih Muslim] there is the hadith of 'Aishah (may Allah Most High be pleased with her) where she said: The Messenger of Allah (SAW) married me at six years of age and had sex with me when I was nine years old. In another narration He married her when she was seven years old. This is unequivocal regarding the permissibility of a father to marry off a little girl without her permission, since there is no permission she can give; grandfathers are like fathers in our view. In the previous chapter the disagreements regarding the stipulations of the guardian were laid out; but Muslims unanimously agree on the permissibility for him to marry off his little virgin daughter, in light of this hadith. If she has reached puberty, she does not have the choice to go against him, according to Malik, Al-Shafi'i, and the rest of the legal scholars of Hejaz. … Regarding the time of the wedding ceremony of the young married girl, and the sex to be had with her [al-dukhul biha] – if the husband and the guardian agree to anything in which there is no harm to the little girl, it may be done. If the two of them disagree, Ahmad and Abu 'Ubaid said that a nine-year-old girl can be forced to do it [tujbar 'ala dhalika], but not younger. Malik, Al-Shafi'i, and Abu Hanifa said: This depends on her being able to tolerate the sex, and this differs according to differences among girls, and is not determined by age. This is sound [sahih], and there are no limitations [i.e. on age] in the hadith of 'Aishah, nor any prohibition on this regarding what a girl can tolerate before the age of nine, nor permission concerning it for what she can not tolerate after having reached nine.