Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
- It is fine for a man to defer (called mu’akhkhar) some or all of the dower (mahr) he will gift to his wife for marriage.
- However, this remains a debt and must be paid regardless of death or divorce.
Answering your question, Sheikh Mustafa Umar, President of California Islamic University, states:
It is fine for a man to defer (called mu’akhkhar) some or all of the dower (mahr) he will giftx to his wife for marriage. However, this remains a debt and must be paid regardless of death or divorce.
It is forbidden to make a conditional-upon-divorce dower (also called mu’akhkhar), as some cultures do, to pressure the husband to not divorce his wife.
Allay says:
“…Give those you have consummated marriage with their due dowries. It is permissible to be mutually gracious regarding the set dowry. Surely Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.” (An-Nisaa 4:24)
Ibn Qudamah:
“It is permissible for the dower to be given immediately, or delayed, or some of it may be given immediately and some of it may be delayed, because it is paid in return for something, thus is permissible in this case, like paying for something else.” (Al-Mughni 7:169)
Almighty Allah knows best.
Source: Ask the Scholars