QUESTION:

Kindly reply me on the issue of equal rights (of wife and husband) on earnings after nikāĥ. Is it even before rukhsati (deliverance and marriage consummation)?

ANSWER:

You have come up with an interesting question. A lady after nikāĥ is the legal wife and should in principle, enjoy all rights implied. That includes nafaqah or sustenance. But what is practiced in the Muslim communities is that the household financial responsibility on husband gets imposed when rukhsati occurs, the lady joins the husband’s house, and the marriage is properly consummated. That is the time when mah’r (dower) becomes properly and wholly due (or partially when wife is divorced before consummation) for the husband to pay, unless otherwise agreed by the two parties at the time of nikāĥ. This being the practice in general, we are however, inclined to say that husband should help his wife, if she is in need and if her parents so demand even before the rukhsati. Husband can frequently send gifts for her so that she is conscious that he is a caring person.