and prior marital experience, as well as any other trait over which people’s preferences differ. If she enjoys some advantage or suffers some deficiency, the mahr is to be raised or reduced in a manner that suits the circumstances. Should one of the comparable women voluntarily accept a lower mahr, the others are not obliged to follow her lead; yet if they all lower their dowries solely out of regard for the clan, that reduction is taken into consideration.

When intercourse occurs under an invalid marriage, an equivalent mahr is due, calculated according to her status on the very day of intercourse. If intercourse is repeated, a single mahr is owed, fixed at the highest valuation among the occasions.

I say: Where intercourse is repeated under one and the same mistaken assumption (shubhah), only one mahr is due; but if the types of shubhah differ, the mahr is owed anew for each. Repeated intercourse with a kidnapped woman, or with a woman coerced into fornication, likewise incurs a separate mahr each time. If the one who repeats intercourse is a father with his son’s slave-girl, a co-owner, or the master of a mukātaba (a slave under a self-purchase contract), the stronger view is that only one mahr is incurred; another opinion holds that several mahrs are due, and yet another says: if the session is one, then a single mahr; otherwise, multiple mahrs. Allah knows best.

Section

Separation before consummation that originates from the wife or because of her—such as annulment on account of a defect found in her—nullifies the mahr. Separation not attributable to her, such as divorce, the husband’s embracing Islam, his apostasy, liʿān (mutual imprecation), or the fact that his mother or her mother has nursed them, reduces the mahr by half. Some have said that halving means the husband is merely given the choice to reclaim half, but the sounder view is that half reverts to him automatically upon divorce. Hence, if the object given as mahr appreciates after the divorce, the appreciation belongs to him. If he divorces her and the mahr has perished, he is entitled to half of its substitute, whether in kind or in value. Should it become defective while in her possession, he may accept half of it as is, or claim half of its value in a sound state. If it was damaged before she received it, he gets his half in its diminished form and has no option. When the damage is the result of an offense and she has collected compensation (arsh), the sounder opinion is that he receives half of that compensation. She keeps any detached increase, while with an attached increase she may choose either to give it with the mahr or to pay half the value without the increase; if she refuses, he is entitled to half the value without the increment, and if she consents, he must accept.

Where the property has both appreciated and depreciated—for example, a slave who has grown older, a date-palm that has grown taller, or someone who has learned a craft yet developed vitiligo—then, if the two agree, half of the actual item is taken; otherwise, half of its value. Cultivating land counts as a depreciation, whereas ploughing is an appreciation. The pregnancy of a female slave or of an animal can be viewed as both an appreciation and a depreciation; another view considers pregnancy in an animal purely an appreciation. The emergence of spathes on a date-palm is an attached increase. If he divorces her while the palm bears pollinated fruit, he is not obliged to harvest it; but if he harvests it, then half of the palm itself—without the fruit—becomes the determined share, even if he is content with half