‘Unwritten Agreements’ During Nikah

[Rafia Khawaja]

The Nikah is a contract between two people and anything can be written in the contract which is mutually agreed by both people

[A Hasan]

My question is related to the ‘unwritten agreements’ and whether they hold any weight in truth

[Umer]

If there’s a norm of the society that woman generally cooks and takes care of the children, then yes it could be an unwritten agreement. However, if a woman wants something different from the norm, she has the right to put her conditions in the written nikah contract.

[A Hasan]

Why is the norm given preference? If the book of God has given the general outline which is both can do what they want then why would a norm outweigh that?

[Umer]

Please think your question over – it makes no sense.

[A Hasan]

The book of God has a few requirements. Eg the man will earn and the women should not do nushuz. This is what should be present as the template for the nikah.

Why should we follow the culture? This is adding to the template that God gave us.

What if someone says I didn’t agree to this- it was your assumption?

Why should it be that any unwritten agreement should be given any weight at all when the rule is to write down what you want at the time of nikah?

[Umer]

It is because humans live in societies and societies have norms. Legal agreements do not list out every obvious fact, otherwise they will be never ending documents.

“What if someone says” type of questions are based on hypothetical situations that may never materialize. Also one can never think through all hypothetical situations that could occur, so it’s a waste of time and effort. Things should be understood in principle, and when an exception takes place it should be dealt with using other overarching principles.

[A Hasan]

Here is where we should do qanoon sazi. As you never know where a problem will arise.

‘All unwritten agreements will not serve as a basis for any argument’