—while it remains intact—this too is governed by the differing positions of Ibn al-Qāsim and Ashhab concerning cash: whether he has a preferential right to it over the other creditors.

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The sole exception to the classification we have set out concerns wives’ dowers. These must be included in the proportional distribution even though the consideration has not been received—that is, when the husband becomes insolvent before consummation. The wife has no option to withdraw from the marriage, unlike the seller, who has a choice concerning his goods if the purchaser becomes insolvent before they are delivered. This is for two reasons:

First, the marriage has been contracted, and the wife has no option to dissolve it, since she does not hold the power of divorce.

Second, the dower is not, in reality, consideration for conjugal relations. Rather, it is a gift from Allah Most High to wives, which He has required their husbands to provide by virtue of the marriage contract. This is the correct view, as evidenced by the entire dower becoming due upon death before consummation. By analogy with the view that the marriage contract entitles a woman to only half the dower, she ought to participate in the proportional distribution for only half. But that is a weak view, unsupported by sound reasoning. The correct position is that the entire dower becomes due upon the marriage contract, although this obligation is not yet definitive. The obligation to pay it in full becomes definitive only upon death or consummation.

Section

If a wife participates in the proportional distribution of her husband’s assets for the full dower before consummation, and he subsequently divorces her, one view is that she must return whatever exceeds half, if the amount she received in the proportional distribution was more than