Who Owns the Bari (the Groom’s Gifts) at a Wedding

Question

The jewellery and the like that the girl’s parents give at the time of the nikah is called the dowry and is regarded as the property of the married woman, both by the Shari‘a and by custom. But the clothes, jewellery and the like given on this occasion from the husband’s side, which in Urdu are called “bari” — by what word do the jurists (fuqaha’) express this? And after the nikah, in whose ownership are the items of the bari counted: do they come into the woman’s ownership as a gift (hiba)

Answer

Here too the matter turns on custom: if no explicit statement was made at the time of giving, then custom is decisive. In U.P. the custom differs from family to family. In our family both the dowry and the bari are all counted as belonging to the girl; in the case of separation by the wife’s death the husband does not become the owner — except to the extent of his share of…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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