Legal Injunctions are Predicated on Pubescence

my father asked him about the orphan while I was present – when does his affair become permissible [when does the authority to oversee his affair devolve to him]? he said: when he attains his maturity, he said: what is his maturity? he said: beginning to have nocturnal emissions, he said: a boy may be eighteen years or a little below that or a little more than that and yet does not have nocturnal emissions (what then)? he said: if he becomes pubescent and something begins to be written for him (of good-deeds and sins by the angels) – then his affair [taking charge of financial decisions] is valid unless he is a fool or mentally incapacitated.

if he reaches his maturity, that is, completes thirteen years and enters the fourteenth – then it becomes obligatory on him what is obligatory on those who have nocturnal emissions whether he himself has emissions or not, and his sins are written down for him, and his good-deeds are also written down for him, and everything becomes permissible for him [in financial terms] except if he is mentally incapacitated or foolhardy.

I asked him about a boy – when does prayer become obligatory on him? he said: if he completes thirteen years, but if he has nocturnal emissions before that then the prayer has already become obligatory on him and the Pen begins to record for him, and the girl likewise if she completes thirteen years or if she menstruates before that – the prayer become obligatory on her and the Pen begins to record for her.

the threshold for a woman’s pubescence is nine years.

when he can understand the prayer, I said: when is prayer obligatory on him (to begin praying)? he said: if he is a child of six years, and fasting is when he has the strength for it [is capable].

I asked Aba Abdillah عليه السلام: at what age is the boy taken to task over prayers? He said: between seven and six years of age, I said: at what age is fasting demanded from him? he said: between fifteen or fourteen years, and if he fasts before that then leave him to do it for one of my sons began fasting before that and I let him.

I asked Aba al-Hasan عليه السلام about a boy of ten years – can he make the Hajj? He said: upon him is the Hajj of Islam if he has begun getting nocturnal emissions, and the same is the case for the girl – Hajj is upon her if she has begun menstruating.

it is not proper for a girl if she has begun menstruating to not veil herself – unless she cannot find it.

I asked Aba Ibrahim عليه السلام about a girl who has not attained puberty – when is it incumbent on her to cover her head from the one one with whom she does not share any relation? and when is it obligatory on her to veil her head fully in the prayer? He said: she does not have to cover her head until the prayer starts becoming prohibited on her [i.e. she begins menstruating].

the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وآله said: there is no suckling after weaning, there is no joining [two consecutive days] in fasting, there is no orphanhood after nocturnal emission, there is no vow of silence from morning to night, there is no return to the nomadic ways after migration [to the urban center of faith], there is no Hijra after the conquest [of Makka], there is no divorce before marriage, there is no setting free [of a slave] before ownership, there can be no oath from a child without the consent of his father, nor from a slave without the consent of his master, nor for a woman without the consent of her husband, there can be no promise to do an evil, nor an oath to break blood-ties. The meaning of his words: there is no suckling after weaning is that – a child if he drinks the milk of a woman after he has been weaned off milk [two years] then that suckling does not prevent marriage [she does not become his Mahram/foster mother].

the termination of the orphanhood of the orphan is by nocturnal emission and it is considered his maturity, however if he begins to have nocturnal emissions but signs of intellectual maturity are not detected from him such that he is foolhardy or mentally incapacitated then his guardian withholds from handing over his wealth to him.

a boy is taken to task over prayers when he is seven years old, and a woman does not cover her hair from him until he begins to have nocturnal emissions.