Demanding the Mahr Before the Bride’s Send-off

Question

Zayd married his daughter to Bakr on these conditions: jewellery and clothing worth five hundred, and two shops worth one thousand five hundred, were to be written into the mahr and registered. The nikah was recited, and now he does not send his daughter off to her husband’s home and wants the rent deed of the shops to be made out in his daughter’s name: “Then I will send her off.” Fifteen months have passed since the nikah.

Answer

If the nikah was contracted on a prompt mahr, then under the Shari‘a the woman has the right not to surrender herself to the husband until she receives the mahr. If the whole mahr is prompt, the woman has the right to demand the whole mahr; if part is prompt and part deferred, she has the right to demand the prompt part.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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