if this arises before consummation, the groom is given a choice: should he advance the whole dower in cash, the marriage stands; otherwise the contract is annulled. Another view reports that, so long as the husband is solvent, it is permissible and lawful to leave part—or even all—of the dower outstanding until he becomes able to pay, and the same ruling applies to a marriage concluded with a dower set for no fixed term. Others say that whenever the dower is left without a term the contract must be annulled before consummation, as we have described, but that after consummation it remains valid and the wife is awarded the cash dower customary for women of her rank. All of this represents the opinion of Mālik.
In his view a dower may be deferred only to a definite deadline, and he disapproves of a lengthy deferment. Anything that may lawfully be sold may likewise serve as the dower, provided its price reaches the minimum fixed by Mālik. He even permits a marriage to be contracted for something that may not itself be sold, such as an unspecified male or female slave—when someone says, “Marry her for a male slave,” or “for a female slave,” or “for slaves,” without describing any of them. In such cases reference is made to what is most common among the slaves of that town; if their values vary, judgment is rendered according to the median value.
He also considers it valid to stipulate, as dower, the furnishing of the marital home or the bridal trousseau: if the husband is a Bedouin he must provide what is customary among desert-dwellers, and if he is an urbanite, what is customary among town-dwellers.
Whoever marries a woman for two dirhams or less is compelled to make it up to three dirhams, though the marriage itself is not annulled; and if he divorces her before consummation he must pay her one dirham out of those two.
It is recommended that anyone who marries a woman hand over her entire dower—or at least a quarter-dinar—before consummation. If he does not and then consummates the marriage, he incurs no liability for the delay; the contract remains valid, and this is the form of contract our scholars call nikāḥ al-tafwiḍ (marriage by delegation). Once intercourse has taken place, the wife is entitled to the customary dower of women comparable to her in wealth, beauty, social standing, and general circumstances, while also considering the husband’s status; according to Mālik, her blood relatives are not taken into account. If he divorces her before consummation and before any dower has been named, she is entitled to