Fixing a Mahr Beyond a Young Man’s Means by Pressuring Him

Question

(1) A married young man aged thirty-five (35), whose mahr is thirty-five rupees and four annas (a coin worth 1/16 of a rupee) because in their biradari (clan community) it is the custom to fix exactly this much mahr; this young man is a government employee. Another person, by coaxing and cajoling, secretly had his nikah performed with his own daughter for a mahr of one and a half thousand rupees, and the people of the village did not come to know of it.

Answer

(1) When offer and acceptance (ijab and qabul) take place before two witnesses in accordance with the Shari‘a, the nikah is concluded; and by agreeing even to this amount of mahr, the mahr becomes binding, even though in the biradari the custom is of a smaller mahr. A married thirty-five-year-old (35)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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