Forcibly Exacting Sweets and Money from the Groom’s Party

Question

In a certain place the wedding custom is this: the groom and his party set out from his home with the wedding procession towards the bride’s village. The inhabitants of the several villages lying along the road seize the groom’s party and exert great pressure to take sweets and the like from them, and if they are not given, they threaten to break the palanquin and so on. Out of shame, the groom’s party is compelled to give these inhabitants sweets and the like to obtain release.

Answer

This custom, and the taking of cash, sweets and the like, and the use of compulsion are prohibited and impermissible according to the Shari‘a. [ar]لا يحل مال امرئ مسلم إلا بطيب نفس منه (الحديث)[/ar] “The property of a Muslim man is not lawful except with his willing consent” (hadith).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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