prompt dower
Under Muslim law, mahr (dower) may be split into prompt (mu'ajjal) and deferred (mu'wajjal) parts. Prompt dower is payable on demand at any time after the marriage. Before consummation, the wife may refuse to live with her husband until it is paid, and this is a valid defence to his suit for restitution of conjugal rights. After consummation the remedy is a suit to recover it.
Deferred dower is payable on dissolution of marriage by death or divorce, or on a date agreed. If the contract does not specify, Shia law presumes the whole dower prompt, while Hanafi courts in India generally treat part as prompt and part as deferred according to custom and status. Unpaid dower is a debt against the husband's estate.
Example
Since the prompt dower had not been paid, the wife was justified in refusing to join the husband before consummation.
See also
mahr · deferred dower · mahr-ul-musamma · restitution of conjugal rights
Read more in the study notes
- Dower (mahr) (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Talaq and the modes of dissolution of a Muslim marriage (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Maintenance of Muslim women: personal law, the 1986 Act and section 144 BNSS (Family Law II - Mohammedan Law)
- Muslim marriage (nikah, mehr, talaq) and Christian marriage (Sociology - Indian Society Continuity and Change)