Deferred Mahr After Many Years and Inflation — Jurisprudential Answers — Miscellaneous Issues, Vol. 3

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

If the divorce is by agreement between the spouses, or the husband divorces his wife without her having requested it, the husband gives the wife all her rights in full. If part of the mahr was deferred and he has not paid it to her, he must pay it at its value at the time of payment if the value of the currency has changed by ten percent or more compared with gold or another stable international currency. The person paying may use any suitable method to estimate the change in value. If the woman is the one requesting divorce without a reasonable legal cause, the husband may refuse to divorce her. She may ask him for khul', giving up some of her financial rights, for example, or paying him financial compensation. The details of khul' are set out in Al-Shara'i. As for a woman's demand for the deferred portion, or any part of her mahr that she has not received, this is permissible. It is her right and she may demand it whenever she wishes. In general, may God grant you success and guide your steps. Divorce is a process of demolishing a family within society, and therefore divorce is a demolition of society as a whole. Avoid it as much as possible. Give yourselves a chance and think carefully before proceeding with it. I advise a woman not to give her family an opening to interfere between her and her husband, and the same applies to the husband. Unfortunately, many divorces are caused by mothers, because some act selfishly toward their sons and daughters. This is a serious mistake, no less serious than a son or daughter being undutiful to his or her mother. A mother has the right to be treated well and kept in regular contact with by her children even after they establish independent lives. At the same time, a mother or father must act wisely and not interfere in their children's lives to the point of destroying their homes and eventually causing divorce and separation. A woman should also respect her home and her husband and preserve her chastity. Likewise, a husband must respect his wife. Each of them should understand that they are two partners who were raised in somewhat different environments; they are two people, not one person. Each therefore has personal characteristics that the other must take into account. Both sides must make concessions so that the family can function properly and produce righteous, productive offspring. A woman should care for her husband and avoid quarrelling with him; a man is usually exposed to more social pressures than a woman, so she should take that into account and be patient with him.