The Ruling on Exempting the Wife from the Deferred Mahr

Question:
Salih, may Allah preserve you, a listener whose name is represented by the initials B.A.M. says: I ask Your Excellency the Shaykh, Salih al-Fawzan, may Allah preserve him, bless him, and make him and his knowledge beneficial to Islam and Muslims. I married a woman and gave her ten thousand riyals as immediate mahr, and I wrote her five thousand riyals as deferred mahr. In the event of divorce after consummation, I want to exempt her from what she received, acting on the verse: "And do not forget the favor between you." Does the deferred mahr obligate me to pay anything of it? In other words, briefly, what is her legal right to this amount?

Answer:
The full deferred amount, which you pay to her in full, unless she permits you to exempt her from it or from a part of it. Yes.