‘I have married a woman of the Ansār.’

The Prophet asked, ‘For what dower did you marry her?’

He replied, ‘Four ūqiyyas.’

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘Four ūqiyyas! It is as though you carve silver from the side of this mountain! We have nothing to give you, but perhaps we can send you on an expedition from which you may gain something.’

He then sent an expedition to Banū ‘Abs and included that man among them.”

Muslim narrated this in his Sahīh.

An ūqiyya was forty dirhams by their reckoning. The amounts mentioned constituted the entire dower, without division into upfront and deferred portions.

Abū Hadrad al-Aslamī related:

“He mentioned that he had married a woman and came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, seeking his help with her dower. The Prophet asked, ‘How much did you pledge as her dower?’ I replied, ‘Two hundred dirhams.’ He said, ‘Even if you were scooping dirhams out of your valleys, you would not have offered more!’”

Imām Ahmad narrated this in his Musnad.

If a man pledges a large dower as a debt he owes her, while intending not to pay it to her, this is forbidden for him. Abū Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever marries a woman for a dower that he intends not to pay her is a fornicator, and whoever incurs a debt that he intends not to repay is a thief.”

Some coarse, arrogant and ostentatious people inflate dowers for show and boastfulness, although they do not intend to collect them from the husband, and he intends not to pay them. This is reprehensible and vile, contrary to the Sunnah and outside the bounds of Islamic law.