#1158 Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that Umar ibn
Abd al-Aziz during his khalifate, wrote to one of his governors,
"Whatever a father, or guardian, who gives someone in marriage, makes
a condition in the way of unreturnable gift or of favour, belongs to
the woman if she wants it."


Malik spoke about a woman whose
father gave her in marriage and made an unreturnable gift a condition
of the bride-price which was to be given. He said, "Whatever is given
as a condition by which marriage occurs belongs to the woman if she
wants it. If the husband parts from her before the marriage is
consummated, the husband has half of the unreturnable gift by which
the marriage occurred."


Malik said about a man who married
off his young son and the son had no wealth at all, that the bride-
price was obliged of the father if the young man had no property on
the day of marriage. If the young man did have property the bride-
price was taken from his property unless the father stipulated that he
would pay the bride-price. The marriage was affirmed for the son if he
was a minor only if he was under the guardianship of his father.


Malik said that if a man divorced his wife before he had
consummated the marriage and she was a virgin, her father returned
half of the bride-price to him. That half was permitted to the husband
from the father to compensate him for his expenses.


Malik
said that that was because Allah, the Blessed, the Exalted, said in
His Book, "Unless they (women with whom he had not consummated
marriage) make remission or he makes remission to him in whose hand is
the knot of marriage." (Sura 2 ayat 237). (He being the father of a
virgin daughter or the master of a female slave.)


Malik said,
"That is what I have heard about the matter, and that is how things
are done among us."


Malik said that a jewish or christian
woman who was married to a jew or christian and then became muslim
before the marriage had been consummated, did not keep anything from
the bride-price.


Malik said, "I do not think that women
should be married for less than a quarter of a dinar. That is the
lowest amount for which cutting off the hand is obliged ."