Question:
Asalaamualaikum,
I am hoping your staff can help me understand a little bit more about the rulings on Haq Mehr. I am insha’Allah getting married in January and our families are now discussing how much the Haq Mehr should be. We’ve agreed it should be given in gold but I’m wondering if you can provide any information on how much it should be? Is there any hadith regarding this matter or what is ruling of the council? Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
JazakAllah Khairun for your assistance.
Answer:
`Alaykum as-Salam,
Mahr or Haq mehr as it is called in the India-Pakistan Subcontinent is the marriage payment, i.e. money or property a husband must pay a woman to marry her, as her God-given right (haqq) commanded by Allah Most High and His Prophet, and it is usually stipulated in the marriage contract. Allah Most High said:
{And give unto the women, (whom you marry) a free gift of their marriage portions; but if they of their own accord remit unto you a part thereof, then you are welcome to absorb it (into your wealth)} (4:4).
Any part of that remittance can be paid upfront (‘prompt’ or mu`ajjal) and the rest later (‘deferred’ or muwajjal).
The mahr is what effects the licitness of the sexual relation in marriage: the Prophet, upon him blessings and peace said: “Truly the most deserving of all contracts that you have to honor is that by which you make the pudenda [i.e. sexual cohabitation] licit.” Narrated by al-Bukhari, Muslim, Malik in the Muwatta’, al-Nasa’i, al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, and Ibn Majah. The amount typically received as marriage payment by similar brides (mahr al-mithl) means that which would be desirable to a woman like her (a woman like the bride, under normal circumstances), ‘like her’ meaning a woman of her relatives (through her father or mother, such as the bride’s grandmother or mother’s sister) resembling her in such characteristics as age, intelligence, beauty, wealth, being virgin or non-virgin, and in having the same hometown. Her relatives are taken as the standard. If the bride is superior or inferior to them with respect to the above characteristics, she deserves a marriage payment that suits how she is. If none of the above exist, then the standard for comparison is the marriage payment of those women of the same town who resemble the bride. In the Arab world sometimes the practice is to remit ten or more gold coins (e.g. Turkish lires or British sovereigns) encased as necklaces or bracelets, or loose.
See Sustainable Development Policy Institute’s: “Rights in a Muslim Marriage:Haq Mehr: An Essential Right”
Hajj Gibril Haddad
