Mahr payments still due at the time of seperation

Definition of Mahr

What is the Shari'ah definition of Mahr? (On one occasion a well-known Islamic scholar said to me, "Mahr is the bride price."This is abhorrent. It is my suspicion that it is such testimony that the judge heard in his court that led him to say "slavery is over in the U.S., if Islamic marriage law says women are sold into marriage, then we will not enforce it in this country." 

The interpretation of mahr as bride price is clearly contradicted by the Qur'an, which states that sadâq is a gift (nihlah) from the husband to the wife. Yet, if a witness were to testify in an American court that sadâq is bride price, then we should not be surprised if the judge was offended and refused to enforce the terms of the marriage contract. Is this what happened in the Virginia case? We do not know because the public record is not complete.) Taken by Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim from (internet Article) Muslim Marriage Contract in American Courts, p5 , p5 , p5 by Azizah Y. al-Hibri, T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, <aalhibri@richmond.edu> , Minaret of Freedom Banquet, May 20, 2000.

(Many women do not even know their rights under the marriage contract in Islam. I'll start with sadâq. It is a gift from the husband to the wife. The amount of the sadâq is to be agreed upon by the two parties while negotiating the marriage contract. They may agree that the full amount would be due at the time of the marriage, or that part of it would be postponed to a later date, which is more common since the young husband may not have the cash up front. Often, the largest portion of the sadâq is postponed to the earlier of the divorce or death of one of the spouses. In either event, the postponed amount of the sadâq becomes due immediately without any court action. You don't have to go to court to get your muta`akhir (the delayed part).In the case of death of the husband, the sadâq becomes a senior debt against his estate, separate from the wife's inheritance rights. Thus even if the estate would become exhausted by debt repayment, the wife would still get her sadâq first and without delay.

The sadâq is a pure right of the woman herself. She is free to spend it any way she pleases. No one may touch it, not even her father or her husband. In some countries I visited they told me that women were being pressured by to show their love for their husbands by saying "I forgive you the muta`akhir, you don't have to pay me the latter part of the mahr.” Then, when they get divorced they realize they weren't very smart to do that. Another mode of customary pressure on the woman is to say "You get more barakat, more blessings, if you ask for a man to give you two or three dollars." Then when the woman gets divorced at fifty she is in trouble because that is all that she gets on her way out of the house.) Taken by Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim from (internet Article) Muslim Marriage Contract in American Courts, p7 by Azizah Y. al-Hibri, T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, <aalhibri@richmond.edu> , Minaret of Freedom Banquet, May 20, 2000.

 [Where the sadâq is large, it is usually viewed by the woman as an important security net for later years. That is why women say, "I don't want your money now, but on death or divorce, I want a million dollars." That was not uncommon in my circle in Lebanon. Of course, when the lira dropped in value there was a wave of divorces (note by Ahmed Fazel: due to the many failed marriages where the husbands did not divorce due to the deferred dowry obligation, which now became affordable through the currency's devaluation). Then, the shari’ah courts intervened and adjusted the amount of the mahr to inflation; and then things stabilized.

Because of these large sadâq demands, the government in the United Arab Emirates placed a cap on the amount of sadâq. This action by the government of the Emirates is questionable because the Qur'an gave the women the right to any amount they please and let the market forces determine whether they could get it or not. When the khalifah Umar ibn al-Khattab said "I want to cap the mahr" an old woman stood up in the mosque to argue with the khalîfah of all the Muslims.

We do not know this woman's name; she didn't belong to an influential tribe. All we know is that she was an old woman in the back of the mosque and said, "You cannot take away from us what God gave us."

He said, "What is that?"

She cited the Qur'anic verses that "even if ye had given the latter a whole treasure for dower take not the least bit of it back: would ye take it by slander and a manifest wrong?" (4:20) and Umar said, "The woman is right and the khalîfah is wrong," and he took back his idea. Yet now we see government again putting a cap on these.

In many Muslim countries, the tendency, usually introduced by the parents, is to minimize the amount of the sadâq, as a way to of showing upper class stature, or piety. In these cases, women suffer upon divorce, especially if they had moved to the US, lost their families, and have no ability to support themselves.] Taken by Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim from (internet Article) Muslim Marriage Contract in American Courts,  by Azizah Y. al-Hibri, T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, <aalhibri@richmond.edu> , Minaret of Freedom Banquet, May 20, 2000.

(Where the amount of the sadâq is high and the length of marriage short, in one case I saw, even the lawyer for the woman refused to go after the husband for the full amount of the sadâq. He said, "She lived with him for only three months. Why should he should give her $50,000?"

I said, "That's her sadâq. If he spent only one minute with her and consummated the marriage, she gets $50,000." The lawyer had real difficulty understanding that. These are the sorts of things we need to explain to the women, to the lawyers, and to the judges.) Taken by Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim from (internet Article) Muslim Marriage Contract in American Courts,  by Azizah Y. al-Hibri, T. C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, <aalhibri@richmond.edu> , Minaret of Freedom Banquet, May 20, 2000. - These paragraphs refer to unpaid Mahr or deferred Mahr that is still due at the time of death or divorce.

We did to elaborate on the above from the hadith and works of jurisprudence.

Minimum Mahr in terms of Hanafi rulings

Considering Non-Material, non-financial instruments,  and abstract issues as acceptable value-holding matters for the purpose of Mahr