mahr-ul-misl
Meaning. Proper or customary dower, fixed by the court when the marriage contract names no amount.
Mahr-ul-misl is the proper dower a wife is entitled to when no dower was specified at the marriage, or when the specification is void. The marriage is valid even without a fixed mahr, because the obligation arises from law.
The amount is decided by looking at the dower given to other female members of her father's family, such as her sisters and paternal aunts, along with her personal qualities, her social position, and the means of the husband. It is contrasted with mahr-ul-musamma, the dower specified in the contract.
Example
As the nikahnama was silent on dower, the court awarded mahr-ul-misl by comparing the dower settled on the wife's paternal cousins.
See also
mahr · mahr-ul-musamma · nikah
Read more in the study notes
- Dower (mahr) (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Muslim marriage (nikah, mehr, talaq) and Christian marriage (Sociology - Indian Society Continuity and Change)