Philosophy of Dowry and How Jahilliyah People Viewed It
One of the wrong traditions regarding women in the era of Jahilliyah was about dowry.
Dowry is a gift, or a promise of a gift, give to the wife by the husband at the time of Nikah (marriage).
The goals of the dowry can be summarized into the following:
1- The dowry is a manifestation of Fitrat (nature). Giving a gift to the beloved as a sign of love is a natural thing and it is natural for someone who proposes to someone else to give a gift.
2- The dowry is a rule of love. Man is a manifestation of asking and loving and woman is a manifestation of being loved. The dowry is given by the man to the woman as a sign of love, affection and adoration.
3- The dowry is the reward and a sign of woman’s Haya (sense of modesty) and dignity. It has the same root as the woman’s Haya, chastity and dignity. Woman is by nature more resistant to lust, and this gives her the opportunity not to chase man and give herself to him for free.
4- The dowry is a secret to the permanence of the family and prevents it from falling apart. Some whimsical men sometimes abandon their wife for no reason to marry a younger woman. The dowry is a major obstacle against such moves.
5- The dowry creates economic balance. Although women have financial and economic independence in Islam, usually men have the upper hand in economic issues in all societies. In case of a divorce, there is a strong possibility that women are left without financial support but the existence of the dowry gives them a kind of economic security.
In the era of Jahilliyah, when a woman got married, a dowry was decided by the two sides as a sign of giving formality to the marriage. The dowry was also a sign of the woman’s honor and purity.
While in principle the woman should have been given the dowry, it was usually given to her custodian. Islam banned this practice.
Among ignorant people in the time of Jahilliyah, the dowry was considered to be the “price” of the woman given to her father or custodian.
