Imposing a Sum on the Husband for the Nikah Besides the Mahr

Question

Some people of an organized biradari (kinship community) form another biradari, having accused the headman of the biradari that the headman of this biradari annulled that Shari‘a decision of our communal biradari regarding the guardians (awliya’) of the groom and the bride allowing dealings in money and the like for the nikah besides the mahr — since this is haram by the Shari‘a, gravely blameworthy and a custom of the polytheists — and that with such persons as allow these dealings one should, by the Shari‘a,…

Answer

(1) No one has the right to insist on something mubah (permissible), because by insistence it becomes forbidden; Shami ﵀ stated this explicitly in “Tanqih al-Fatawa al-Hamidiyya” and elsewhere. The money that in some places the girl’s side demands and that the boy’s side is compelled to give, and without which the bride’s send-off to her husband’s home does not take place —…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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