Prophet Muhammad’s Guidance on Marriage

Praise be to Allah.

The guidance of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) about marriage was that he encouraged making it easy, announcing it and proclaiming it openly, and expressing joy and happiness on this occasion; making a wedding feast and inviting people to it; urging those who are invited to attend, and even if a person is fasting he should attend and offer Du`a’ for the host of the feast, but he does not have to eat.

Then he enjoined treating the wife with kindness and trying one’s best to achieve that.

This is in general terms. There follows a detailed discussion:

Affordable dowry (Mahr)
Al-Bayhaqi (14721) narrated that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “The best of dowries is that which is most affordable.” It was narrated by Abu Dawud (2117) with the wording: “The best of marriages is that which is most affordable.” This was classed as authentic by Al-Albany.

It says in ‘Awn Al-Ma`bud: “I.e. the easiest for the man by making the dowry and so on easy. Al-`Allamah Ash-Shaykh Al-`Azizi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: i.e., the lowest dowry or the easiest in accepting the proposal.”

Ahmad (23957) and Ibn Majah (4095) narrated from `Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “One of the signs of a woman being blessed is that the process of proposing to her is made easy and the dowry is made affordable and she bears children easily.” (Classed as sound by Al-Albani in Sahih Al-Jami`, 2235)

At-Tirmidhi (1114) narrated that `Umar ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Do not go to extremes about women’s dowries. If that were something honourable in this world or a sign of piety before Allah, then the Prophet of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) would have been the most entitled to it, but I never heard that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) offered as a dowry for any of his wives or accepted as a dowry for any of his daughters anything more than twelve Uqiyah. (Classed as authentic by Al-Albani in Sahih At-Tirmidhi)

An Uqiyah is 40 Dirhams; the weight of a Dirham in grams is 2.975 g [of silver].

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