The agreement in the village to set a limit on the mahr and to punish whoever exceeds it
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Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. In our village, we agreed with the scholars of that village that the mahr should not exceed forty thousand riyals. And whoever goes against this must pay five thousand riyals, and the people of the village will not attend his wedding as a punishment for him. Is this agreement valid and to be acted upon?
Answer:
The agreement is valid in principle; there is nothing wrong with them agreeing on a specific amount. As for whoever exceeds it paying a fine and being punished, this is not permissible. This is not permissible. There is no evidence that it is permissible to exceed this limit, nor that one should be punished for exceeding it, except in cases where something is limited by the Shari'ah. The mahr is not limited by the Shari'ah.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. In our village, we agreed with the scholars of that village that the mahr should not exceed forty thousand riyals. And whoever goes against this must pay five thousand riyals, and the people of the village will not attend his wedding as a punishment for him. Is this agreement valid and to be acted upon?
Answer:
The agreement is valid in principle; there is nothing wrong with them agreeing on a specific amount. As for whoever exceeds it paying a fine and being punished, this is not permissible. This is not permissible. There is no evidence that it is permissible to exceed this limit, nor that one should be punished for exceeding it, except in cases where something is limited by the Shari'ah. The mahr is not limited by the Shari'ah.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 116 من 123 / شرح كتاب زاد المستقنع / القضاء / صالح الفوزان / الفقه / كبار العلماء — youtube.com (1:15:45)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.