and those who had not grown it, they joined with the offspring. Atiyya al-Qurazi said: "I was presented to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the day of Qurayza, and they doubted me. So the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ordered that I be examined to see if I had grown [pubic hair] yet. They looked at me and did not find that I had grown it yet, so they joined me with the offspring." This is connected to its meaning. Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote to his governor: "Do not collect the jizya except from those upon whom the razors have passed [i.e., those who have grown pubic hair]." Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Habban reported that a boy from the Ansar wrote verses of poetry about a woman, so he was brought to Umar, who did not find that he had grown pubic hair. He said: "If you had grown the hair, I would have flogged you." Furthermore, this is an external physical manifestation that is usually accompanied by puberty, and in which the male and female are equal; thus, it is a sign of puberty, just like nocturnal emission. Moreover, external manifestations are of two types: connected and disconnected. Since there are disconnected manifestations by which puberty is established, the connected ones are likewise. And whatever is considered puberty in the case of polytheists is puberty in the case of Muslims, such as nocturnal emission and age.

As for age, puberty is attained by it in the case of a boy or a girl at fifteen years. This is the opinion of al-Awza'i, al-Shafi'i, Abu Yusuf, and Muhammad. Dawud said: "There is no limit for puberty based on age," due to his saying (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The Pen is lifted from [three: from the] child until he reaches puberty." Establishing puberty by anything other than that contradicts the report. This is the opinion of Malik, and his companions said: seventeen or eighteen. It was narrated from Abu Hanifa regarding the boy in two versions: one, seventeen, and the second, eighteen. As for the girl, it is seventeen in all cases, because a limit is not established except by scriptural text (tawqif) or consensus (ittifaq), and there is no scriptural text for [that which is less than] this, nor is there consensus. Our argument is that Ibn