The second: on its amount.
The third: on its nature and description.
The fourth: on its deferment.
Issue One
As for its ruling, the jurists are unanimous that the dowry is a condition for the validity of the marriage contract and that it is unlawful for the spouses to conspire to omit it, based on the words of the Exalted:
“Give the women their bridal gifts graciously” (Qur’an 4:4),
and
“So marry them with the permission of their people and give them their bride-price” (Qur’an 4:25).
Issue Two
Regarding its amount, they agree that no maximum is set, but they differ over the minimum. Al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, Isḥāq, Abū Thawr, and the jurists of Madinah from among the Successors hold that no minimum is stipulated. Whatever may serve as a price or valuation for something else may likewise serve as a dowry; this is also the view of Ibn Wahb among Mālik’s disciples.
Another group maintains that a minimum must be fixed, and among these the well-known positions are two:
- the school of Mālik and his companions;
- the school of Abū Ḥanīfah and his companions.
Mālik says that the least acceptable dowry is a quarter-dīnār of gold, or three full-measure dirhams of silver, or anything equal in value to those three weighed dirhams—meaning dirhams of weight only, according to the prevalent opinion. Others say: or anything equal to either of the two.
Abū Ḥanīfah sets the minimum at ten dirhams; another report puts it at five; yet another at forty.
The causes of their disagreement over this valuation are twofold.
First, they waver between considering the dowry a compensation, for which mutual consent over little or much suffices as in sales, and considering it an act of worship, which would then require specification. From one angle, because through it a man acquires the woman’s usufruct in perpetuity, it resembles a compensation; from another, because the parties may not agree to waive it altogether, it resembles an act of worship.
Second, this analogy that calls for specification is counterbalanced by textual evidence whose purport does not require a fixed amount.
The analogy demanding specification is, as stated, that the dowry is an act of worship, and acts of worship are delimited. The textual evidence that implies no lower limit is the ḥadīth of Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sāʿidī, agreed upon as authentic, wherein:
“A woman came to the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have offered myself to you in marriage.’ She remained standing for a long time. Then a man rose and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, marry her to me if you have no need of her.’ The Messenger of Allah—peace be upon him—asked, ‘Do you have anything to give her as a dowry?’ He replied, ‘I have nothing but my lower garment.’ The Prophet—peace be upon him—said, ‘If you give it to her you will sit with no garment. Look for something else.’ He answered, ‘I can find nothing.’ The Prophet—peace be upon him—said, ‘Search, even if only for an iron ring.’ He searched but found nothing. The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—then asked, ‘Do you know anything of the Qur’an?’ He said, ‘Yes, such-and-such sūrah,’ naming them. The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said, ‘I have…’