And if he divorces before consummation or seclusion, he is entitled to half of it by right, excluding its separated increase; and in the case of connected increase, he is entitled to half of its value without its increase.

The Shaykh :"And if he divorces before consummation or seclusion, he is entitled to half of it by right, excluding its separated increase" Now, if he divorces before consummation and the mahr is specified, the author says that he is entitled to half of it by right. The meaning of "by right" is that it enters his ownership by necessity and compulsion, even if he does not wish it to enter his ownership. For example, if he gave her a car as mahr and then decided to divorce her before consummating the marriage or being alone with her, and he divorced her, to whom does half of the car belong? It belongs to the husband by right, meaning that even if it remains with the wife or he says, "I do not want it," it enters his ownership by force. Now, if he says, "I have gifted it to her," it becomes a gift from the outset, and there is no harm in that. But if he says, "I do not want it, I do not want it to enter my ownership," we say, "No, it is in your ownership." The evidence for this is the saying of Allah the Exalted: meaning half of what you have stipulated for yourselves, and the rest is for them. The author, may Allah have mercy on him, says, "He is entitled to half of it by right, excluding its separated increase, and in the case of connected increase, to the end of it, excluding its separated increase." This means, for instance, if the husband gave this woman a sheep as mahr—pay attention, he gave her a sheep—and after six months or after a year passed, he divorced her before consummation and before seclusion, what does he get from this sheep? Half of the sheep. The sheep gave birth to twins during this period, meaning it had two offspring, and this is the third. Does he have any right to its offspring? No, because the offspring are separated increase. Does he have any right to the value of the milk she sold during this period? No, because the milk is separated increase. Now, this sheep became fat. Fatness is connected increase. The author says, "In the case of connected increase, he is entitled to half of its value without its increase". Regarding connected increase, we say now that we cannot give you half of the sheep. Why? Because it increased in the ownership of whom? In the ownership of the wife. So the increase belongs to her. But the problem is that its increase is connected. How is it divided? We say, estimate the value without the increase. It is asked: What is the value of this sheep without the increase that occurred in the wife's ownership? They said its value is two hundred, and with its increase, its value is three hundred. So how much do we give the wife: one hundred and fifty, or one hundred? One hundred, because the connected increase is not his right. But since it is not possible to separate it, we say, we estimate the mahr without this increase and tell you, "Take half of it." If he asks, "Why do you not return to me half of my mahr?" we say, "Because it is difficult to return it with the increase." If he says, "Why do you not make me a shared partner in half of this sheep?" we also say, "It is not possible, because it has grown and increased, and you have no right to the increase." So what remains is that we estimate it by its value free from the increase. Do you understand? Do you understand? Good, not bad. Now, if a man marries a woman and says the mahr is this sheep—do you understand?—and he remains for a full year without consummating the marriage, then divorces her after a year, and the sheep becomes pregnant and gives birth, to whom does the offspring belong? It belongs to the wife. Does the husband have any right to it? No, he has no right to it, because this is separated increase that occurred in the wife's ownership, so it belongs to her. Now, this sheep became fat. It was thin at the time of the marriage contract, worth only one hundred riyals, and then at the time of divorce, it became fat, worth two hundred riyals. What is due to the husband? Do we say to you, "Take half of the sheep with its increase"? If we said that, we would be unjust to the woman, because the increase belongs to the woman. And if we say it is not so, what do we do? We say, we estimate the value of the sheep as if it were thin, and we give him half of the value. Do you understand now? This is it.