And delegating the mahr by marrying her off for whatever either one of them or a third party desires

The Shaykh : He said "And delegating the mahr by marrying her off for whatever either one of them or a third party desires" This is delegating the mahr, meaning that a man marries off his daughter and delegates the mahr, not the marriage itself, to whatever he desires when he wants to marry her off. He says to the groom, "What is the mahr?" He says, "Whatever you want." What is this called? Delegating the mahr. Because the wife or her guardian says, "Whatever you want, give me that." This is called delegating the mahr. The man marries her on this condition, that her mahr is whatever he wants. So he presents them with a sheep. The groom presents the bride with a sheep. Is this mahr valid or not? It is not valid. We say it is obligatory for you to pay the mahr of the like. And this woman is from the noble people, and her customary mahr is one hundred thousand. Yes, it is obligatory for you to pay two hundred thousand. He says, "O people, you said whatever you want, so give us, and I wanted to give you the sheep." We say, no, the matter is not up to you. When we said "whatever you want," give us, this is an invalid designation. It is unknown, among the most unknown things. So when it is unknown to this extent, we return to what? To the mahr of the like, because the mahr was not designated with a valid designation. Is that clear, Sa'd? I ask you, is it clear or not clear? It is clear. And it seems Sa'd is saying, if they married me off for whatever I want, and I brought them a sheep, and the mahr of its like is two hundred thousand, and they delegated the matter to me, then this is injustice. Is this what you want? Okay, I understand. We say the reason we return to the mahr of the like is that this designation is invalid due to its deep-rootedness in ignorance. Because if we say "whatever you want," it could be a quantity, a species, or a type that is ambiguous with great ambiguity. And what is ambiguous to this extent is nothing. So we return to the mahr of the like, just as if he married her off without a mahr, we return to the mahr of the like. Did you understand or not? But if someone says, if it is said "we married you off for whatever mahr you want," and he brings a reasonable mahr, but it is less than what is in the minds of the bride and her people, and less than the mahr of the like, it should be said that it is valid. And even if we do not say this, he has deceived them. But we say he can get out of this deception by insisting on designating it. If they say to him, "Whatever you want," he says, "No, this is not valid. It is unknown. You must specify it." Now, if they specify it, it is specified, even if it is much less than the mahr of the like. And therefore, be alert, O you who have not married. If the mahr is delegated to you, say, "Specify it, it is necessary." If he says, "Whatever you want, there is no account between us, and you are our son, and you are such-and-such," say, "I do not contradict you. I am your son, and there is no account between us, but in this matter I will hold you accountable. Specify it." Did you understand? Okay. If the ignorance or deception is removed, by what? By specification. We say, "Specify it." And at that time, they cannot demand more from you than what you specified, even if it is much less than the mahr of the like. Its counterpart is if a man’s wife disliked him and they asked him to divorce her, and he said, "I do not want to divorce. I love the woman, and I have lost the mahr and its accessories on her, and I cannot divorce." So when he saw them pressing him, he said, "No problem, I will divorce. Bring the scribe." So when the scribe was about to write, he said, "Wait, O men. You have lost many losses and suffered, and we want you to go like this. We want to give you compensation." He said, "Absolutely not. I will leave her for the sake of Allah, and I do not want compensation or anything." They said, "No, we must compensate you." He said, "May Allah reward you with good. Do you want to benefit us? We will make the compensation small, ten riyals." He said, "If you are obligated to give us, give us ten riyals." So he divorced her for a compensation of ten riyals. And when a week had passed, he came wanting to take her back. Can he take her back? He cannot, because with the compensation, she is divorced from him. He cannot take her back. But if he insisted that he did not want anything, and did not take ten riyals or a single dirham, and then came after a week wanting to take her back, can he take her back or not? He can take her back. And therefore, it is recommended that if the relationship between the spouses becomes bad with clear badness, and the woman does not want her husband, especially if she does not want him due to a defect in his religion, the one who wants to write the divorce should say, "O people, this man has suffered and lost, and you should impose some money for him so that the divorce is upon him." So they said, "No problem, we accept his advice," and they set a compensation. At that time, the woman owns herself, and he cannot take her back. One should be alert to such matters, because they may be lost even for students of knowledge. If this man divorced his wife without compensation and then wanted to take her back before the waiting period, he has that right, whether she agreed or not. Yes. Okay. So the difference between delegating the marriage and delegating the mahr. Brother, are you there?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : With whatever mahr she desired, with a mahr, but with whatever mahr she desired. In both cases, what is established for her? No, the one behind you. What is imposed for her, my brother? May Allah help us. No one is there. Okay, what do you say?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : No, no. What is established for her if they married her off for whatever mahr they desired, or married her off without a mahr? Yes, the mahr of the like is established for her. It is said that the marriage is contracted, and she has the mahr of her like. And what is the meaning of the mahr of the like? It means that they look at a woman like her in beauty, lineage, wealth, religion, and knowledge, and it is said, "The mahr of a woman like this is ten thousand riyals." How much is the mahr? Ten thousand. A woman like this is five thousand. Five thousand. A woman like her is fifty thousand. Fifty thousand. And so on.