Islamic Fiqh > Marriage and family > Mahr in Islamic law > When is the equivalent mahr due?
Updated on 06 October 2026 at 10:50 PM
This chapter of the Encyclopedia of Fiqh (al-Mawsua al-fiqhiyya) deals with the dowry of equivalence (mahr al-mithl): the dowry owed to a wife whose marriage was contracted without a stipulated dowry, based on the customary dowry of women comparable to her. The sheets that follow determine the events that make this dowry due in full or by half: consummation, death, lawful seclusion (khalwa), the preliminaries of intercourse, divorce, khul' and the husband's conversion. The positions of the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools are reported together with their classical references.