by performing the duties customarily expected of a woman like her for a man like him. These vary according to circumstances: a Bedouin woman’s duties differ from those of a townswoman, and a strong woman’s from those of a weak woman.

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The customary rights of each spouse are what a marriage contract without additional stipulations entails. What such a contract entails is determined by custom, just as a sale contract without additional stipulations requires payment in the customary currency. If either spouse imposes a condition upon the other that neither forbids something lawful nor permits something forbidden, then Muslims must abide by their stipulations. Contractual obligations are derived sometimes from the wording and sometimes from custom.

Both, however, are subject to the limits of what Allah and His Messenger have not forbidden. Each contracting party may undertake obligations toward the other that Allah has not forbidden that party to assume. Nor does He forbid a party to undertake, in an exchange, to provide something that may lawfully be given without compensation. In cases such as lending sexual access or assigning rights of patronage to someone other than the emancipator, no stipulation can make these obligatory. For if granting something is forbidden, how could a stipulation make it obligatory? These are comprehensive principles, presented briefly. Allah knows best.

He was asked about a man who was married to a woman and went away for a full year, leaving her nothing. She had nothing with which to support herself and was starving. Then someone came to seek her hand in marriage