Section

• If he makes her dower one thousand dirhams should her father be alive and two thousand if he is deceased, the named dower is void and the customary dower becomes obligatory.

• By contrast, if he says, “If I already have1 a wife, your dower is two thousand, and if I do not, it is one thousand,” the contract is valid with the amounts stipulated.

• Postponing the whole dower—or part of it—is permissible. Should he fix2 a particular date, it becomes due on that date; otherwise, it falls due at the time of separation.

• If he designates as her dower usurped property, a pig, or the like, the customary dower becomes due instead. When the property lawfully stipulated as dower is later found defective, she may choose either the compensation for the defect (arsh) or its full value.

• If he marries her for one thousand dirhams for herself and one thousand for her father, the designation is valid; yet if he divorces her before consummation and after the amount has been taken into possession, he may recover the one thousand3, and the father owes nothing. If that additional amount had been stipulated for anyone other than the father, the entire named sum belongs to her.

• When a man marries off his daughter—even if she has previously been married—for less than her customary dower, the marriage is valid even if she objects4. If a guardian other than her father does the same with her permission, it is valid; but if he acts without her consent, she is entitled to the customary dower. Likewise, if a man marries off his minor son for a dower equal to, or greater than, the customary amount, the obligation rests on the boy’s estate; and even if the boy is insolvent, the father is not liable for it.