Haq Mehr in Islam: Amount, Types and Rules

Mehr is one of the few things in a nikah that is the wife’s right by name, yet it is often treated as a formality: a number written on the nikah nama that nobody reads again. This guide explains what mehr is, the two kinds written in the nikah nama, how Mehr-e-Fatimi and the minimum mehr are worked out, what Pakistani law says, what happens to mehr at divorce, khula and death, and how it affects zakat. To turn any of these amounts into today’s money, use the haq mehr calculator, which works from the live silver rate.

What is haq mehr?

Mehr (mahr, also called sadaq) is the money or property a husband gives his wife because of the nikah. The Quran calls it her right and a gift: “And give the women their mahr as a free gift” (Surah an-Nisa 4:4). Three points follow from this verse and are agreed on by all the schools:

• It belongs to the wife alone. It is not paid to her father, brother or family, and nobody may take it from her without her free consent. She may spend, save, invest or give it away as she likes.
• It is a duty on the husband, not a price for the bride and not a favour. Until it is paid, it is a debt he owes her.
• It is different from dowry (jahez). Jahez is what the bride’s family gives at the wedding. It is not mehr, it does not reduce the mehr, and the Quran does not require it.

Mehr can be cash, gold, silver, land, a house or anything else of value. In Pakistan it is most often fixed in rupees or in tola of gold, and some families fix it as Mehr-e-Fatimi in silver.

What are mu’ajjal and muwajjal mehr?

The nikah nama lets the couple split the mehr into two parts:

• Mu’ajjal (prompt) mehr is due as soon as the nikah takes place. The wife may ask for it at any time, and it is best paid at the nikah or the rukhsati.
• Muwajjal (deferred) mehr is due at the time agreed in the nikah nama, or, if no time is given, at divorce or at the death of either spouse.

A couple may make all of the mehr prompt, all of it deferred, or split it. Deferring the mehr is allowed, but the deferred part is still a real debt. It is not cancelled by the passing of years, and it does not lose its value if it was fixed in gold or silver.

What does the nikah nama say about mehr?

The standard Pakistani nikah nama has separate columns for the mehr: the amount of the mehr, how much of it is prompt and how much deferred, whether any part was paid at the time of the nikah, and whether any property was given in place of all or part of it. These are columns 13 to 16 on the usual form. Read them before you sign, and make sure the figures in words and in numbers match. If the mehr is in gold, write the weight and the karat, for example “5 tola 24K gold”, not only a rupee figure, so that its value is clear years later.

What does Pakistani law say? MFLO 1961, section 10

Section 10 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance 1961 says that if the nikah nama, or the marriage contract, does not say how the mehr is to be paid, the whole of it is payable on demand. In practice this means a nikah nama with the mode of payment left blank makes the entire mehr prompt. A wife whose mehr is not paid can claim it before the Family Court.

How much is Mehr-e-Fatimi today?

Mehr-e-Fatimi is the mehr the Prophet ﷺ gave for his daughter Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her). Sayyidah Aisha said the mehr he gave his wives was twelve and a half uqiyah, which is 500 dirham (Muslim 1426). Sayyiduna Umar said it was not more than twelve uqiyah, or 480 dirham (Abu Dawud 2106; Tirmidhi 1114). Because of these reports, scholars give more than one figure:

View	Silver	Value today
500 dirham (Mufti Muhammad Shafi; preferred in many Pakistani fatwas)	131.25 tola, about 1,530.9 g	Rs 7,44,546
480 dirham (narration of Sayyiduna Umar)	about 1,469.7 g	see the calculator
400 dirham (view reported from Ibn al-Humam)	about 1,224.7 g	see the calculator

Paying Mehr-e-Fatimi is not obligatory. Many families choose it for its blessing, but any amount both sides agree on is valid, as long as it is not below the minimum of their madhab.

What is the minimum mehr?

• Hanafi: 10 dirham, about 30.62 g of silver (2 tola 7.5 masha), worth about Rs 14,891 today. If a smaller amount is fixed, the mehr becomes 10 dirham. Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi and Mufti Rasheed Ahmad Ludhianvi gave about 34 g.
• Maliki: a quarter dinar of gold or 3 dirham of silver.
• Shafi’i and Hanbali: no fixed minimum; anything that has value may be mehr.
• Shia (Ayatollah Sistani): no fixed minimum; the mehr of the Sunnah is 500 dirham.

There is no maximum in any school. Scholars do, however, warn against fixing a mehr so high that the husband has no real intention or means of paying it, because an unpaid mehr stays a debt on him in this world and the next.

Why is mehr measured in silver?

The amounts in the hadith and the books of fiqh are in dirhams, the silver coins of the time. A dirham is a fixed weight of silver, so a mehr measured in silver keeps its value while the rupee loses value. That is why muftis tell people to work out Mehr-e-Fatimi and the minimum mehr from the silver price on the day of the nikah, not from an old rupee figure someone remembers. Local sarafa prices are usually a little higher than the international rate our calculator uses; either is acceptable if used honestly.

Worked example: a mehr fixed in rupees and gold

Sara’s nikah nama says: mehr Rs 3,00,000 and 3 tola of 22K gold. Rs 1,00,000 is mu’ajjal and was paid at the nikah; the rest, Rs 2,00,000 and the gold, is muwajjal with no date given.

• Is it above the Hanafi minimum? Yes, by far. The minimum is about Rs 14,891.
• What is still owed? Rs 2,00,000 and 3 tola of 22K gold. The gold is owed as gold, so its value follows the gold rate on the day it is paid, not the day of the nikah.
• When is it due? At the time the couple agree, or at divorce or death, since no date is written. Sara may also ask for it earlier if her husband agrees to pay; many husbands pay deferred mehr during the marriage, which clears the debt.

What happens to mehr at divorce or khula?

• Talaq after the marriage was consummated: the whole mehr is due, prompt and deferred, and any unpaid part must be paid.
• Talaq before consummation: if a mehr was fixed, half of it is due (Surah al-Baqarah 2:237). In the Hanafi school a valid private meeting of the couple (khalwat-e-sahihah) is treated like consummation for the mehr, so the full mehr is then due.
• Khula: in khula the wife asks for the marriage to end, and she usually gives back the mehr she received, or gives up the unpaid part, as the price of the separation (Surah al-Baqarah 2:229). The basis is the wife of Thabit ibn Qays, whom the Prophet ﷺ asked whether she would return the garden her husband had given her (Bukhari 5273). What exactly is returned is agreed between the couple or decided by the Family Court in a court khula; ask a lawyer and a mufti about your own case.

What happens to mehr when the husband or wife dies?

Unpaid mehr is a debt on the husband. If he dies before paying it, it is paid in full from his estate before the inheritance is divided, just like a bank loan. Only then does the widow take her inheritance share of what remains: 1/8 if he left children, 1/4 if he did not. See the wife’s and husband’s share, and enter the mehr as a debt in the wirasat calculator. A mehr fixed in silver or gold is paid at its value on the day it is paid; the haq mehr calculator converts it at the live rate. The iddat calculator gives the date the iddat after a divorce or khula ends.

When the wife dies, the mehr her husband still owed her becomes part of her own estate. He pays it into her estate, and it is then divided among all her heirs, including him.

Is zakat due on mehr?

• Mehr the wife has received is her own wealth, whether cash or gold. It is counted towards her zakat like any other savings or jewellery, on her own zakat date. See zakat on jewellery for how each madhab treats gold she wears.
• Unpaid mehr: many Hanafi muftis say zakat is not due on it until she receives it.
• Fiqh-e-Jafaria: according to Ayatollah Sistani, the mahr a wife receives is not subject to khums (see who must pay khums).

Use the zakat calculator for her total, and check today’s nisab.

Common mistakes

• Treating mehr as a formality. It is a debt that must be paid, either at the nikah or later.
• Giving mehr to the bride’s father. It belongs to the bride.
• Using an old rupee figure for Mehr-e-Fatimi. It is a weight of silver; work it out from the rate on the day.
• Leaving the nikah nama columns blank. Under section 10 the whole mehr then becomes payable on demand, which may not be what either family meant.
• Forgetting unpaid mehr when dividing an estate. It comes before the shares of the heirs.

In Urdu, read حق مہر کیلکولیٹر. This guide gives figures from published fatwas and the live silver rate. It is not a fatwa; for a particular nikah, divorce or khula, ask a qualified scholar.

Frequently asked questions