the dower. As for the view that the entire dower becomes due upon conclusion of the contract, with half subsequently lapsing upon divorce before consummation, this is untenable. Once rights have become established for their holders, they cannot lapse except through a valid disposition, such as a sale, gift, charitable donation, or the like. If the dower became definitively due to the woman through the marriage contract, it would not lapse entirely through annulment or apostasy, nor would half lapse through divorce. The governing precedent is what happens when divorce, annulment, or apostasy occurs after consummation. Likewise, the view that half the dower becomes due through the contract and the other half through consummation and sexual enjoyment is unsound. If half became definitively due through the contract, it would not lapse through annulment or apostasy. And if the second half became due only through consummation or sexual enjoyment, it would not become due when either spouse died before consummation, since death does not create a financial liability that did not already exist.

Section

If, however, he has not stipulated a dower for her and divorces her before consummation, she is entitled only to a parting gift. If he dies leaving her a widow, she is entitled only to her inheritance, not to a dower, according to Mālik and his companions, provided that he dies before consummation and no dower has been assigned to her.

Section

The degree of intercourse that makes the entire dower due is penetration of the full glans. This carries seven legal consequences: it makes the dower due; requires a full ritual bath; renders the prescribed punishment applicable in cases of unlawful intercourse; establishes both spouses’ status as having consummated a lawful marriage; makes a woman divorced three times lawful again for the husband who divorced her; invalidates Hajj; and invalidates fasting.

Section

If he divorces her before the marriage has ostensibly been consummated, but both acknowledge having had intercourse, the woman becomes entitled to her full dower and must observe the waiting period. If they are known to have been alone together, or she is visibly pregnant, he has the right to take her back, and each inherits from the other if either dies during the waiting period. If, however, they are not known to have been alone together and she is not visibly pregnant, he has no right to take her back. Outwardly, their marriage has already ended irrevocably, so they are suspected of seeking to remarry without a guardian or dower, and they do not inherit from one another. If both deny intercourse and neither claims that it occurred, she is entitled only to half the dower, and she is not