Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
9. Dowry
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women because God has made some of them
to excel others and because they support them
from their means. All the righteous women
are the truly devout ones, who guard the
intimacy which God has (ordained to be)
guarded.
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For largely biological reasons, women are well
adapted to domestic pursuits while men, for similar
reasons, are better suited to work outside the home.
These physical and mental differences between men
and women are, in practice, what underlay Islam’s
division of familial responsibilities into internal and
external spheres, with the woman dealing
exclusively with the home and family and the man
providing the funds.
MAHR MU‘AJJAL
At the time of the marriage, the groom hands over
to the bride a sum of money called
mahr
(dower)
which is a token of his willing acceptance of the
responsibility of bearing all necessary expenses of
his wife. This is the original meaning of
mahr,
although this custom has come to have different
connotations in modern times.
