some women are unwilling to live with the husband’s family because they have heard that the relatives are quarrelsome, disruptive, and fond of gossip. She may therefore say, “I stipulate that I will not live with your people,” and he is obliged to honour that condition, for Allah says, “O you who believe, fulfil your contracts” (5:1).

Likewise, she may stipulate that he not remove her from her own house—say she has children from a previous marriage and, upon marrying a new husband, declares, “My condition is that you do not make me leave my home.” He must respect that stipulation and must not harass her. He cannot claim, “I have not expelled her,” while nonetheless making her life unbearable until she grows weary and gives up; that is forbidden, because Allah has said, “O you who believe, fulfil your contracts.”

If she specifies a particular dowry—for example, “My condition is that you give me a mahr of ten thousand”—he must pay it without delay, for it is an agreed‐upon term. However, should either spouse set an invalid condition, it is not accepted. An example is her saying, “My condition is that you divorce your first wife.” Such a condition is neither valid nor enforceable, because the Prophet ﷺ said, “A woman must not ask for her sister’s divorce in order to take what is in her vessel—or, he said, in her dish.” This condition is unlawful, for it constitutes aggression against another, rendering it null and void; one is not required to observe it at all, since it is a corrupt stipulation.

By contrast, if she stipulates that he not marry another woman and he accepts, the condition is sound, for it wrongs no one; it merely prevents the husband from