#1185: Resolving the Issue of Non-Payment of Bride Price (Sadāq)
QUESTION:
“Asalamu aleikum. Pls Ustaz l need Islamic stand on this issue? My brother got married 16 years ago and during the nikkah he was prevented from paying the bride price because of some ugly tradition. Now he want to pay the pride price in isolation(2 or 4 person as witness). What is ur advice”
ANSWER:
Wa Alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh
There is no doubt that the Sadāq is a Condition among the requirements of Nikāh for which any Marriage has to entail before or after the Marriage has been conducted. Allāh Ta’ālā said in the Qur’ān
وَآتُوا النِّسَاءَ صَدُقَاتِهِنَّ نِحْلَةً
“And give to women their Dowries as gift and of a free heart”
This verse is an Indication of Obligation.
Imām Al-Qurtubī mentioned in his Tafsīr: “This verse shows the Obligation that the Sadāq must be given to a woman. And it is a matter about which there is consensus”
Except that the texts of the Sharī’ah in the Qur’ān and the Hadīth and of what the Fuqahā past and present have mentioned is that the Sadāq can be delayed till a time of convenience and the Nikāh can be considered to have been conducted even without it been paid in advance of consummation of the Marriage. It will, in a situation when it wasn’t paid before or during the Nikāh as a debt on the husband. In the Qur’ān Allāh said:
لاَّ جُنَاحَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِن طَلَّقْتُمُ النِّسَاء مَا لَمْ تَمَسُّوهُنُّ أَوْ تَفْرِضُواْ لَهُنَّ فَرِيضَةً
“There is no blame on you that you should divorce women that you have not touched or given to them their rightful amounts (Sadāq)”
Imām Muwaffaquddīn Ibn Quadāmah Al-Maqdisī rahimahullāh said in Al-Mughnī: “Marriage is considered sound without an initial mention of the Sadāq in accordance with the position of the Generality of the People of Knowledge”
It should be emphasized that anytime a Marriage has occured without a mention of the Mahr or it’s payment, it becomes Obligatory upon the Man to pay for it in the course of their lives together. If he doesn’t pay it and death comes in between them, it would be considered a debt that must be debited from his total belongings before the inheritance is shared among his heirs.
Now, with respect to your question, provided what you regarded as ‘Bride Price’ is the Sadāq, then there is no worries about the fact that he did not pay it then. All he needs to do now is to pay it to her. If there was a specification and an agreement between them both before or during the conduction of the Marriage, then he pays the same amount to her. If however there was no specification of the amount, he pays in average of what the Society accepts as Sadāq to her.
And Allāh knows best.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
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