Abstract
Muslim man and woman are given complete legal capacity under Islamic law provided that they are sane, have attained their puberty and are prudent. Marriage is a legal contract which possesses high significance and sacredness in Islamic law. Muslim jurists, therefore, provide certain principles and conditions to secure it from defective decisions. Guardianship, in Shari’ah, is the legal authority of a person, who is fully competent to safeguard the rights and interests of another who is incapable of doing it independently due to no or limited legal capacity. According to Hanafi School of law, a mature free Muslim woman has complete legal capacity to enter in to the marriage contract. Guardian’s absence in her marriage does not make the marriage contract invalid provided it fulfills other conditions. The principal aim of this paper is to examine legal capacity and guardianship in marriage and to investigate the extent of the guardian's authority to conclude a marriage in the case where he has the right of compulsion and in the case where he does not have it. The paper also emphasizes the significance of presence of guardian for protection of woman’s welfare and that it should not restrict woman’s legal capacity in marriage.