Woman Between Islam and Western Society
9. Dowry
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particular woman. Rabi’ah did as the Prophet
advised, conveying his message to the tribesmen,
and was duly married to the woman in question.
But he greatly regretted having nothing to give her
by way of dower. He came back to the Prophet and
told him of his feelings. The Prophet then arranged
for the dower by requesting the Chief of the Aslam
tribe, Burayda Aslami, to “collect for him (Rabi’ah
Aslami) gold equal in weight to one date stone.”
Rabi’ah relates how the people of his tribe did just
that, whereupon he took the collected gold from
them, and went to the Prophet. The latter told him
to take it to the girl’s family, and tell them that this
was her dower. Rabi’ah did so. They accepted it
with pleasure, saying, “It is much, it is good.”
8
MAHR MU’AJJAL
Another way of giving dower, according to the
shari’ah,
is to hand it over, not on the occasion of the
marriage, but after a certain period of time, the
duration of which is fixed by the man. This has to be
settled at the time of the marriage if
mahr
is not to be
handed over immediately. This form of dower is
called
mahr mu’ajjal,
“a period of time.” This has often
