An Ambiguous/Unstipulated Mahr Amount

According to the Hanafi Mazhab the following conditions should be met in order for an item to be considered and recognized as Mahr;

The item must be considered as Maal (wealth) irrespective of whether it is a tangible item or some usufruct (Manaafi) that one could derive some benefit from.

It must hold (monetary) value.

It must be known and specified, either by verbally making mention of the Mahr or by physically indicating towards the Mahr so that it becomes known.

If any of the above mentioned conditions are not met when stipulating the Mahr then Mahr Mithl will be have to be instead given/discharged.

Mahr Mithl refers to that amount that is generally given to the woman’s sisters, paternal aunts and cousins who are approximately the same age, similar in beauty, have a similar financial standing, similar in chastity, knowledge, character, etc. It is not necessary that both the women are totally equal to each other in all respects but they should resemble each other in these abovementioned aspects.

In our scenario, the husband stipulated that an Umrah trip will be afforded to the wife as payment of Mahr. However, due to the value of the Umrah trip (in monetary terms) being left unclear and ambiguous, the husband will be required to pay Mahr Mithl the details of which have been explained above.

However, in our scenario, the woman in question is a revert hence calculating the Mahr Mithl based on her family members will not be possible. She should therefore try and identify Muslim female individuals who are similar to her father’s female family members (in terms of age, character, etc as was mentioned above) and base her Mahr Mithl on the amount that those Muslim female individuals had received.

With regard to negotiating the Mahr after the Nikah, the Fuqaha have written that the Mahr stipulated at the time of Nikah is the Mahr that the husband is required to pay. He may however increase that amount if he wishes to do so voluntarily, or the wife is entitled to forgive part of the Mahr. This is the only form of negotiations documented in the Kitaabs of Fiqh.