41
Zakaat thereupon is binding upon him. Now what the husband
must do is separate from that jewellery the value of the
mehr
and make the wife its owner. He must clearly stipulate that this
is
in lieu of the
mehr
, hence the bride becomes the owner of
that jewellery and the Zakaat thereupon is binding upon her.
2).
The husband must give his wife an amount of money
every month and stipulate that it is in payment of the
mehr.
.
3).
Whatever spending money is given to the wife, must
be intended to be part payment towards
mehr
and the wife must
be made aware of this as well.
4).
If a gift is given to the wife during any joyous or other
occasion, then an intention must be made that it is part of
mehr
payment and she should be told this as well.
The reality of the bride’s portion (trousseau)
After a study of the Hindu culture books, it appears that
according to Hindu culture there
is no inheritance for the
women, therefore at the time of marriage the bride is showered
with gifts and sent off. According to Hindu culture, the best
wedding is called a
Brahma
where the bride is herself made the
gift. That is, her father gives her off as a gift to her in-laws,
where she no longer has any ties with her original family.
Therefore at the time of her marriage, in order to please and
appease her, she is showered with gifts and given whatever she
desires, in accordance to her father’s ability. After the marriage,
she cannot any longer return to her
family regardless of what
oppression her in-laws mete out on her. She cannot separate
from her in-laws and she does not inherit in her parent’s estate.
After the death of her husband, she cannot remarry. She has the
42
choice of either being cremated together with her dead husband
or leading a single, lonely life.
It is written in the book by the author,
“The position of women
in Hindu civilisation is that the bride should be given in
marriage along with suitable ornaments, but their number and
price is left entirely to the discretion and ability of her
father…”
This custom was initially rife amongst the elite of the Hindu
society, but later gained so much popularity that it was
practiced widely. This is the reason why the government
eventually introduced the
Dowry Prohibition Act
in 1961,
which threatened a 6-month jail term or a fine of 5000 rupees
for anyone practicing the dowry system.
The situation in India made a mockery of the governmental and
Divine laws. According to one report, in Delhi in the year1975
alone, 350 brides were burnt. Between June 1980 and 1985, in
a single province in Maharashtra, 200 women were murdered in
this way. In Lucknow, one bride in every five days was a
victim to this curse. [Herald, Bangalore—3/1/1989]
In our society although there is no cremation of the living,
nevertheless, the lives of innumerable young brides are being
made utterly miserable by social beliefs and customs. They are
being targeted with the poison-tipped fire arrows of their
mothers and sisters in laws. Their very lives and existences are
being made miserable by their in-laws. The numbers run into
the thousands of those that are afflicted with this unfortunate
circumstance. They are expected to ‘cough up’ from their little
possessions which they received at the time of the Nikah. When
a child is born, she is supposed to give her mother-in-law
something, father-in-law something; when her sister-in-law is
43
born she must give her something; on the occasion of Eid she
has to give something; when someone goes for Hajj she has to
give something, etc., etc. and the list goes on and on. Like this
many unfortunate souls are subjected to daily misery, which
they need to bear without having any visible hope of salvation.
We see the number of suicides increasing day by
day of these
hapless brides.
It is of utmost importance that the grooms and families
nowadays abandon these cruel and un-Islaamic customs. All
these customs are based on greed and voracity. There is
absolutely no Shar`i basis for any of these practices.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
