is not an arbitrator; his appointment requires no order from the authorities, he need not be a member of the family, his role is not confined to cases of marital discord, and none of this requires a specific scriptural text. When discord arises, however, the spouses need someone with authority over them to oversee their affairs, since neither can have sole authority to judge the other.

Allah therefore commanded that their affairs be entrusted to two people from their respective families, who should do whatever serves their best interests: reconcile them or separate them, with or without compensation. Here, one arbitrator, acting together with the other, has the authority to pronounce divorce without the husband’s permission; the other, acting together with the first, has the authority to offer compensation from the wife’s property without her permission, because the two have become guardians over them.

A consistent implication of this view is that a father may pronounce divorce on behalf of his minor son or his mentally incapacitated son when he considers it beneficial, as stated in one of the two opinions reported from Ahmad. Likewise, he may secure his daughter’s release from marriage in return for compensation when he considers it beneficial to her.

More strikingly, if a husband divorces his wife before consummation, her father may waive her entitlement to half the dowry, if one holds that the father is “the one in whose hand is the marriage tie.” This is the view of Mālik and one of the two opinions reported from Ahmad. The Quran indicates that this view is correct. The dowry is not like the rest of her property: it was originally prescribed as a gift, and the marital right over her has reverted to her undiminished. Treating divorce like annulments would therefore entail that she should not receive half the dowry. Yet the Lawgiver compensated her by awarding her half the dowry for the distress caused to her by divorce. Hence Ibn ‘Umar, al-Shāfi‘ī, and Ahmad, according to one of the opinions reported from him, regarded this as a substitute for the consolatory gift. They therefore held that a consolatory gift is obligatory for every divorced woman, except one divorced after her dowry has been fixed and before