Woman in Islamic Shari‘ah
4. The status of woman
~ 58 ~
second Caliph. It concerned the amount of money
or goods which had to be given as dower (given by
the husband to the wife at the time of marriage as a
token that he will meet all her expenses in future).
In the Prophet’s lifetime this had been a very
nominal amount, but with the increase in resources
after the conquest of other countries, people had
begun to apportion more substantial dowers.
Feeling that this was an unhealthy trend, ‘Umar
once addressed an assembly of his people from the
pulpit, saying that he did not know who had
increased the amount of dower to more than 400
dirhams.
‘The Prophet and his Companions handed
over 400
dirhams
or even less. Nobody should fix a
dower of more than 400
dirhams.
If it comes to my
knowledge that anyone has exceeded this amount, I
will confiscate the excess amount for the State
Treasury.”
When he had had his say, a woman got up from one
comer of the gathering and said, “O Chief of the
Faithful, is the Book of God (Qur’an) to be followed
or what you have to say?” ‘Umar replied that it was
certainly the Book of God that was to be followed.
The woman then retorted, “You have just forbidden
